


Listening To The Lightning Thief

by NUMBER1ANGIRL



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: ;), Characters Reading Their Books, Crack, Luke Castellan Salt, Multi, Past Relationship(s), Percy is a big part, Pettiness, Road Trips, The Trials of Apollo Spoilers, but audiobook, but everyone is alive, but he’s only mentioned - Freeform, hopefully better than it sounds, like a year later, lowkey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 113,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27765190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NUMBER1ANGIRL/pseuds/NUMBER1ANGIRL
Summary: “What did you decide on?” Jason asks, either out of an act of kindness, or complete and utter boredom.“The Lightning Thief!” She exclaims, before adding under her breath, “I think.”“What kind of music is called The Lightning Thief?” Nico questions, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.Hazel hums, her cheeks flushing. “I- I’m not sure if it is music.”That got everybody’s attention.“Hazel…” Piper said cautiously. “Please tell me you did not actually put in-”~The Lightning Thief, Book One.~“An audiobook.” She groans, her head banging against the window.or,While on a road trip, Hazel comes across a strange cd in the glove compartment. The catch? It was written by Percy (the only one not there) about his first year at camp.
Relationships: (mentioned) - Relationship, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso/Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Percy Jackson & Hazel Levesque, and I haven’t planned that far ahead, but he’s not in this, like - Relationship, they’re definitely together
Comments: 485
Kudos: 684





	1. Intro

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meerturtle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meerturtle/gifts).



> I was forced to write this by someone who hasn’t finished the books yet 😔
> 
> I hope you’re happy, Tajah.

It was the summer. 

In the middle of a heat wave.

And the eight of them had to be stuck in a car, for a five day road trip, lugging a trailer full of weapons that Chiron had oh so graciously decided to donate to Camp Jupiter. 

Since these demigods were already on their way to California, it had been ever so convenient that they should drive the weapons down. At least... that’s how the dumb half horse had worded it when packing them into the overcrowded minivan.

It is safe to say that absolutely none of the teenagers were thrilled for this.

They  _ had  _ been wanting to go to California, but it was so hot this week, that they were just going to let Hazel and Frank drive back.

But apparently, whatever they were driving with needed  _ extra  _ protection… Needless to say, this was a disaster on four wheels waiting to happen.

“Tell me again why we agreed to this?” Piper grumbles, squished against the back window.

“He gave us the guilt trip, followed by the horse eyes.” Leo answers, shifting so that his arms weren’t pinned underneath the girl.

“I hate the horse eyes.” Annabeth groans, her head leaning against the passenger side window.

Reyna, seated on the other end of the back seat next to Jason, sighs. “And why doesn’t Jackson have to go with us?”

“Cause he came down with the flu.” Annabeth says, her voice filled with bitterness.

“Lucky bastard.” Leo huffs, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It’s not that bad…” Hazel says slowly, even her usual optimism sounding false.

Nico just glares at her. “We’re stuck in a car with barely usable air conditioning in the middle of summer. Even  _ you  _ can’t find a bright side to this.”

She purses her lips, crossing her arms over her chest. “I… am determined to put a good spin on this.” She says.

She leans forward, and opens up the glove compartment.

“It’s not like Chiron left us  _ completely  _ unprepared.” She grabs a black cd case, and places it into her lap.

“Are those cds?” Jason asks, leaning over the chairs to peak over her shoulder. “I didn’t even know they still made those.”

“It’s probably really old.” Reyna infers, barely paying any interest to this new ‘development’.

“Oh, come on!” Hazel says, gently nudging Frank as he places the key into the ignition.

He starts, his eyebrows furrowed as if he has to remember what exactly the conversation was about. “Um… oh! Yeah! Great. Let’s… do it…” 

Hazel nods, flipping through the book. “Right. Let’s see. We have… Chiron and the… Party Ponies…” Her bottom lip comes out as she tries to understand the title. 

Annabeth gives her a raised eyebrow, and a, “Really?”

“Yeah, let’s just move on.” Hazel clears her throat. “The Muses’ Greatest Hits…” Her voice lilts upwards, as she takes in the reactions from her friends. Only Piper dignifies her with a response, and it’s a soft shake of the head.

The young girl groans, staring at dud after dud of discs. Finally she lands on one that catches her eye. “Ooh!”

“What? Did you find a cd of Apollo’s Best Lyre Riffs?” Leo asks, leaning his head against Piper’s.

“Yes, but that’s not what I’m looking at.” 

She gently takes the disc in between her fingers, and stares at the glassy surface. Written upon it in scribbly handwriting was ‘The Lightning Thief’. At least… that’s what she thought it said. The handwriting wasn’t too good.

Hazel places it into the cd slot, and watches as it loads. 

“What did you decide on?” Jason asks, either out of an act of kindness, or complete and utter boredom.

“The Lightning Thief!” She exclaims, before adding under her breath, “I think.”

“What kind of music is called The Lightning Thief?” Nico questions, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Hazel hums, her cheeks flushing. “I- I’m not sure if it is music.”

That got everybody’s attention.

“Hazel…” Piper said cautiously. “Please tell me you did not actually put in-”

**The Lightning Thief, Book One.**

“An audiobook.” She groans, her head banging against the window.

“Come on…” Frank says. “It might be good.”

“Suck up.” Leo whispers under his breath.

Annabeth turns to the radio. “That… voice… sounds familiar…”

**Okay. Look, I have some stuff to get off my chest. My mom suggested writing things out, but I suck at that, so I’m talking instead. Okay, here goes nothing.**

“That kid sounds, like, twelve.” Piper murmurs.

Annabeth’s eyebrows just furrow.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

“Who does.” Reyna sighs, her eyes distant.

**If you're listening to this because you think you might be one, my advice is: stop listening to this right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

“Why didn’t we get to listen to  _ this  _ before the whole Gaea thing?” Piper grumbles.

“Would’ve definitely saved us some trouble.” Leo agrees.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

“This should be on the camp brochure.” Nico deadpans, picking at his nails.

“You guys have a brochure?” Frank asks, raising an eyebrow.

**If you're a normal kid, listening to this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these words—if you feel something stirring inside—stop listening immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

“Don’t they find us anyway?” Jason asks, peeling his sweatshirt off from the heat.

“Yeah…” Annabeth answers softly.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

And like that, everything quieted down. The group of demigods looked at eachother, eyes wide.

Hazel jumps to the radio, hitting pause.

“No freaking way.” Leo murmurs. “Percy made audiobooks?”

“And left them in Chiron’s glove compartment.” Nico says slowly.

Hazel blushes, her hands going to her cheeks. “Out of all of the things for me to choose, it was the one cd that Percy made himself.”

“What should we do?” Reyna asks softly, eyes darting to all of the occupants in the car.

“We should stop listening!” Hazel says immediately. Everyone else remains silent. “I mean… This could be really embarrassing and deep. It would be like invading Percy’s privacy…” Nobody else said anything. Not even Frank. “Annabeth, you’re on my side, right.”

Annabeth glares at the radio. “Well… we’re here. And Percy is ‘sick’.” She uses air quotes.

“I’m pretty sure he’s actually sick-” Hazel murmurs.

“So, screw that bitch! I’m listening!” Annabeth says, pressing the play button.


	2. I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Do not read the description of Nancy Bobofit's lunch on a full stomach. Had to learn that one the hard way.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at YancyAcademy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

The occupants of the car were all hanging off of every word that Percy spoke.

“A troubled kid… Percy?” Leo asked, his eyebrows scrunched together. Sure, the guy was probably severely mentally unstable. But troubled? 

**Am I a troubled kid?**

“It’s like we’re on the same wavelength.” Leo murmurs. Jason and Piper both shushed him.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

“That sounds familiar.” Piper hums, sharing a look with Leo and Jason. 

Leo shudders. “I still can’t think of Wilderness School.”

“You think you had it bad?” Nico asks. “I had a lion man for a teacher.”

**I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

“People go to sleep during school?” Frank asks.

Reyna shakes her head. “Oh, honey.” 

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

“That sounds ominous.” Nico mutters, drumming his fingers against his knee.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

“Gee, I thought you were kidding when you said he had a lot of schools.” Piper says to Annabeth.

The blonde shakes her head. “Nope.” She pops the ‘p’.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

Piper gags. “Chunks of _what_ now?”

“ _Peanut butter and ketchup sandwich_!” Leo enunciates slowly, like he was explaining something incredibly difficult.

“I _will_ hurt you.” She promises, glaring at him.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin.**

“He wasn’t tipped off by the fact that he had a beard?” Nico asks, his lips pursed together. 

Piper raises her hand. “I actually knew a kid in fifth grade who had a moustache... it’s actually pretty common.”

**On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

“Idiots.” Annabeth whispers under her breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

“Damn.” Jason whistles. 

Reyna raises an eyebrow at him. “When did you start using that kind of language?”

He looks down, and blushes. “Sorry.”

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

“Poor thing.” Piper murmurs. And then she shudders again. “Peanut butter and ketchup.”

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

“Fair.” Leo says. “I don’t even know what he’s getting himself into, but I think this is fair.”

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

“He has such a way with words…” Frank mutters. No one could tell if he was being sarcastic or not. 

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

Nico snorts. 

“What’s so funny?” Leo asks Piper quietly. 

“I don’t know, but him laughing at something I don’t get is kind of unnerving.”

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

“Calling it now, she’s a monster!” Jason says. 

Hazel turns around in her seat, giving him a death glare, and putting a finger to her lips. “Shush!” She hisses, gesturing to the radio. 

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

“I don’t know why, but I already adore Grover.” Piper muses, placing a hand over her heart. 

“It’s literally been ten minutes.” Reyna sighs, her eyes narrowed at the sound of Grover’s name. 

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

“Oof.” The sound sort of reverberated around the car from no place in particular. 

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

“He's in trouble…” Leo catcalled.

Nico turns around in his seat, “ _Percy_ is twelve, Leo. Not you.”

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

“Is Mr. Bruner supposed to be someone we know?” Leo asks, his eyes narrowed like he was working out a difficult problem. 

Everyone turns their head around to face him. 

“Really, dude?” Frank questions. Leo just stares at him blankly. 

“Frank! Eyes on the road!” Annabeth hisses, lunging forward. 

“Oh! Sorry!” 

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

“Who's eating his whats now?” Leo asks, looking at the radio as if he’d heard wrong. 

“You don’t know this story?” Piper questions in disbelief. 

“Look, Beauty Queen,” Leo says, despite the glare Piper sets him with. “Put me in a malfunctioning engine, I’m fine. But give me a book of literature and ask me to find the context clues, I’m a goner.”

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

“So… our grandfather is a cannibal?” Leo asks in confirmation. 

“No.” Jason answers. “ _Me and Nico’s_ grandfather is a cannibal. Kronos is your _great grandfather_.”

“And you people wonder why I’m a vegetarian.” Piper whispers, her face scrunched up in disgust. 

Annabeth laughs. “Yeah, well he’s _your_ uncle.”

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

“What’s so funny about war?” Nico asks, his eyebrows drawn together. 

Hazel shakes her head. “I can just tell that those are white kids.”

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

“He has _no_ idea.” Annabeth grumbles. 

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

“Wow.” Reyna murmurs. “Public school has nothing on that.”

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

“Why does he sound so familiar?” Leo asks, his brain looking like it was working overdrive. 

“Should I tell him?” Piper asks. 

“Absolutely not.” Frank says immediately. Even if he himself wasn’t so sure on the teachers actual identity. 

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

“What _is_ the point of that story?” Piper asks curiously. 

“Don’t have kids?” Nico asks. 

Annabeth snorts. “Good one.”

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C– in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

A silence filled the car after that last part.

Piper’s eyes settled on her hands. It was a feeling she was well acquainted with. The burden of not feeling good enough to someone that you desperately wanted to impress. 

It was a feeling that pretty much all of the occupants had got at one time or another. 

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

“And I thought California was bad.” Piper huffs, trying to ease the tension in the car. It worked. 

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

“I couldn’t even get away with swapping lunches at one of my old schools.” Leo pouts, his bottom lip sticking out. 

Piper gently pats his back, drawing him onto her shoulder like he was a small child in need of comfort. In a way, he was. 

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

Another silence. 

“Wow…” Nico says softly. “Kid has got some issues, doesn’t he?”

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

A few laughs escaped. 

“Grover owns my whole heart.” Piper declares. 

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

“That’s a lot to take in.” Reyna says softy, her eyes following the scenery through her window. 

No one disagreed. 

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

“Bitch.” Piper hisses, crossing her arms over her chest. 

Annabeth follows suit. “Agreed.”

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

“I didn’t realize how… angry he is…” Jason says softly. 

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

“Oop.” Reyna murmurs. 

Leo gives her an odd look. 

“Yes, I said it. Shut up now.” Reyna says softly. 

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

Annabeth narrows her eyes at the radio. “That _idiot_.” She whispers. 

“Why is he an idiot now?” Nico asks. 

She shakes her head. “You’ll see.” 

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Leo says to Piper in a carrying whisper. 

“Really?” Nico asks sarcastically. “Because I thought the creepy teacher was gonna be _loads of fun_.”

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

“What _is_ she?” Jason asks softly. 

“Don’t you ever just wanna be surprised?” Reyna asks, rolling her eyes. 

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

“Baby.” Piper pouts. 

“You’ve _literally_ known him for two seconds.” Leo murmurs. 

“It doesn’t matter, he’s baby.”

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

“How is this not setting off any alarms in his head?” Frank asks, only half of his attention on the task at hand. Driving the eight demigods safely.

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

“Probably because she’s some sort of demon from hell.” Reyna mumbles. No one could really tell if she was paying attention, or just waiting for the parts where she could make fun of Percy.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

“That happens to me all the time!” Piper exclaims, her eyes wide. “Like, I can’t really describe it… but that sounds similar.”

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

Annabeth slowly shakes her head, her hands going to her temples. She kept muttering, “Idiots”, under her breath. So, it wasn’t like this was anything new for her.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Leo murmurs.

“Who doesn’t?” Jason questions.

“Percy.” Annabeth and Nico say at the same time. If there was one thing that they were both well acquainted with, it was Percy Jackson being a dumbass.

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

“Why doesn’t he know something bad is going to happen? Even a normal kid should feel in danger about now.” Reyna asks.

Annabeth just shakes her head. “Percy doesn’t have the best track record of knowing when he’s walking into danger.”

“It’s true.” Nico announces. “I mean, all the times that I’ve almost gotten him killed…”

Everyone turns to stare at him, their eyes wide.

“Frank!” Annabeth yells, and their driver hastily turns his eyes back to the road.

“Sorry, Annabeth.”

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

“Run!” Piper instructs, even though the radio obviously couldn’t hear her. It was the principle of the matter.

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

“Fu-” Jason began to say.

Reyna raised an eyebrow at him, her eyes sharp.

“Udge.” He finishes lamely. 

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

“Fair.” Leo says.

Piper shakes her head at him. “The lengths you will go to not read a book.”

Leo just raises his finger to his lips and shushes her.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

“Have we fought that monster before?” Leo asks.

Piper shakes her head. “Nah, you’re thinking of the _other_ bat winged hags we had to fight.”

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

“Aww, baby Percy getting baby Riptide.” Piper coos.

“Riptide was still thousands of years old at this po-”

“Don’t ruin my moment, Chase.”

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

“Wow… he got his first monster on his first try.” Reyna commented. It wasn’t out of awe or adoration. Just a general observation. Probably to prove that she was listening. Probably just to fill the silence because _someone_ didn’t know anything else to say.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

“I can just tell that something bad is going to happen.” Leo whispers to Piper. It carries throughout the van.

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

“Schools can still do that?” Frank asks, his voice tainted with nerves.

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

“Uh oh.” Piper murmurs.

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

“Aw… he’s a bad liar.” Piper mused.

“Do you… have… some sort of crush on Grover or something?” Jason asks as nonchalantly as he can manage. So… not at all.

Piper shakes her head. “Of course not. But I want to be his friend as soon as possible.”

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

“Why the fuck is there so much thunder in this?” Reyna groans.

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

“Riptide.” Piper whines softly.

Annabeth turns in her seat to face her friend. “Do you always talk this much?”

“Only when watching a new story to keep from absolute boredom.”

“Ditto.” Leo responds.

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

“Oh, gosh.” Hazel whispers, her hands going to her mouth, and her eyes wide. She was staring at the radio intently, like she already couldn’t get enough of this story.

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at YancyAcademy. Are you feeling alright?"**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, first off, I get the words from Novels80.com 
> 
> I'm not writing the full thing out personally. Mostly because I don't have any of the original books T_T
> 
> I feel like I tried my best to capture the characters in this, but give me your thoughts. Have a great day/night/whenever you read this <3


	3. Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks of Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read the last chapter when it was originally posted, I updated it. You should know that I don't actually read my work after I write it. I know a lot of people were upset with how I described Percy, and I never intended for that to be so. I'm genuinely sorry if it came out the wrong way. Anyway, enjoy!

Leo was drumming his fingers against his thigh. “I wonder what’s gonna happen next.” 

“Shut up, and we’ll know.” Hazel groans, giving him a pointed look.

“Why are you so grumpy?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. Some people  _ actually  _ want to pay attention when they invade their friend’s privacy.”

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

Piper winced in sympathy. “Poor thing.” She murmurs. At least she’d been fooled by the mist. No one thought she was crazy when some random person showed up on a random field trip.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

“No! Don’t believe them!” Leo pleaded as if twelve year old Percy could actually hear them.

**Almost.**

“Oh, thank the gods.” Leo breaths in relief.

“You’re an odd guy.” Nico murmurs, not even glancing at the seat behind him. It was a statement, not a question.

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

Annabeth just shakes her head. “Grover literally cannot tell a lie to save his life. It’s why we never tell him about surprise parties.”

“Not since the Sweet Sixteen fiasco.” Nico agrees, shuddering.

“The, what now?” Leo asks.

“You don’t want to know.” Annabeth and Nico say at the same time.

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the HudsonValley touched down only fifty miles from YancyAcademy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

“Dear old dad?” Jason asks.

“Yours or his?” Annabeth questions.

The blonde boy shrugs. “Both?”

“Yes.”

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

“What does sot even mean?” Frank questions.

Everyone looks over at Annabeth, but it was Reyna who answered. “It means a drunk.” She said factually. “Percy called his teacher an old drunk.”

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to YancyAcademy.**

“That makes sense.” Jason says softly, fiddling with his glasses.

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

“I thought he liked his step father.” Jason murmurs. “Paul right? The one that just had the baby?”

“No. He had another one.” Hazel says softly, turning to a stunned Annabeth. “Right? Before Paul?”

Annabeth blinks a few times. “Yeah… how did you know? I don’t think he would’ve even told  _ me  _ about him if he hadn’t accused us all of murder.”

Hazel just shrugs, ignoring the curious looks that the others’ were giving to Annabeth’s statement. “When we were on our quest he would talk some things through to remember. He mentioned another stepfather then.”

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

“Good for him.” Reyna says, tracking the terrain outside the car. “Latin is important.”

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydectes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

“It’ll get easier.” Leo promises to the non comprehensive machine. 

Jason shakes his head. “You know he can’t hear you, right?”

“Can’t I at least  _ try  _ to give the kid hope? Because, believe me, it won’t get easier!” 

“Ain’t that the truth.” Nico murmurs, taking a swig from his water bottle.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

Piper starts wiggling in her seat as if she, too, could feel insects crawling around her body. 

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave YancyAcademy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

The group stays silent. The utter hopelessness in Percy’s voice opened something in each of them. A dark familiarity that they wouldn’t have associated with Percy Jackson.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

“Fuuuck.” Piper says slowly, her elbows on her knees. She looked as if she was listening intently to the radio.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

“Agreed, that’s unforgivable.” Leo murmurs.

“Why?” Frank asks innocently. 

“Oh, honey.”

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

Hazel’s fingers were drumming on her thigh, practically a mile a minute. Anxiousness was clear in her wide, golden eyes.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline— "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

“So… their master plan… is to make him think that he’s crazy?” Piper asks, tilting her head.

“Holds up.” Leo answers. “I mean… isn’t what they did in Order of the Phoenix?”

“I don’t think so.” Frank answers.

Leo shakes his head. “Man, I didn’t get that movie  _ at all _ .” Frank and Jason both face palm at the word ‘movie’.

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Annabeth chewed on the inside of her cheek, looking out her window.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

“I don’t blame him.” Hazel says softly. It was one of the first things she’d said in a really long time.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

“Hmm,” Leo hums, rubbing his chin. His eyes were squinted, and you could tell that his brain was working a mile a minute. Finally, he snaps. “Chiron!” 

Piper wraps her arms around his shoulders. “I knew you’d get there.” She says proudly.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

“What happened on the winter solstice?” Jason asks, practically vibrating in his seat. 

“No spoilers!” Reyna yells at him.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

“Oof.” Piper murmurs, her hand going to her mouth. 

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

“Obviously not. The poor kid is going through some stuff, and we’re only twenty minutes in.” Leo says, resting his head against Piper’s.

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

“Don’t we all.” Nico says, crossing his arms over his chest and staring outside the windshield.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

“You gotta hand it to him,” Hazel murmurs. “For a kid that has no idea what’s going on, he seems to be doing pretty well.”

“Yeah,” Annabeth says softly. “He’s good where it counts.”

“Then why do you guys keep calling him an idiot?” Piper asks, leaning her head on the back of Annabeth’s seat.

The other girl shrugs. “Because he’s a ‘seaweed brain’.” She uses her fingers for air quotes. “I mean he’s oblivious, but he isn’t stupid.”

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

“Uh oh.” Leo says, eyes wide. “This isn’t going to be good.”

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

Piper groans, her eyes scrunching shut, and her head going into her hands. She was entirely too sympathetic to the situation.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

“Ouch.” Frank mumbles, his own face screwed tightly.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

“Fuck.” Annabeth murmurs, wincing.

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

“Aw, he mentioned us.” Leo says softly.

“Do you have to keep reminding us that we’re all technically related?” Jason asks softly. “It’s weird.”

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

Piper shakes her head. “Rich kids. They’re the worst.”

“Weren’t you a rich kid?” Frank asks innocently.

“Yes. That’s how I know that they are the worst.”

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

“That moment you realize your best friend is odd.” Jason mumbles.

Leo nods, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “Yeah, but I never held it against you, dude.”

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

“Good for him.” Reyna says softly. So softly that Jason, who was literally squeezed right next to her, could barely hear.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

“He’s got a good memory.” Piper confessed. “I already forgot about what they were talking about, and it was much closer together for us than for him.”

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

“But I still love you.” Piper added, a hand on her heart.

Leo gives her an odd look.

“What? I can either go all in on the fan stuff or not at all. There is no in between for me!”

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

“So the undercover satyr gets a business card, but when I wanna make more robot dragons, I’m told it would be ‘ _ too conspicuous _ ’.”

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

“That’s one way to look at it.” Piper says softly, her head tilted to the side.

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

“Poor Grover.” Frank sighs.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Piper exclaims.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

“Tell him!” Hazel encourages, her knees going to her chin.

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

“I have a bad feeling about this already.” Leo announces to the rest of the car.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

“And now I’m hungry.” Annabeth grumbles.

“More like hangry.” Leo whispers to Piper.

“I can hear you, bitch.”

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

“Three old ladies. Yarn…” Reyna murmurs, her face going pale.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

“Oh, gods.” Jason whispers, gently shaking his head.

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

“It was a little funny…” Leo says lamely, moving closer to Piper. 

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

“Listen to him.” Frank pleads, staring at the radio.

“Who wants to take over for Frank at the first stop?” Annabeth asks, moving the boy’s head back towards the road.

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

“Why does he have to make jokes at a time like this.” Nico asks softly, shaking his head.

Annabeth was worriedly chewing on her lip.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

“How lucky.” Reyna says in a monotone.

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

“Everything.” Three different people said at the same time.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

Piper shakes her head. “If this is the first few minutes, then what the fuck is going to happen later on?”

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

“Is he going to die?” Leo asks.

Annabeth gives him the evil eye. “Not yet.”

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

“That’s one of the saddest statistic I’ve ever heard.” Piper murmurs, her hands going to her temples.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Also, please be kind in the comments. This is my first Percy Jackson fic ever, and I'm trying my best to get out about 5,000 words every two days ToT 
> 
> Until next time!


	4. Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New Game: Take a sip of water every time they drop the f bomb this chapter! Just kidding. If you do that, you'll never finish it.

Hazel was playing with her fingers. “Should someone have gone in with Annabeth to help her carry the stuff?”

Leo huffs. “Well don’t look back here. Me and Frank are already in the dog house.”

Frank sighs, his shoulder bumping into Leo’s head. “I can’t believe she kicked me out of the driver’s seat.”

Reyna giggles. “I can’t believe she forced  _ him  _ into the driver’s seat.”

Jason sat next to Hazel, his eyes forward, and hands tightly onto the wheel even though they were parked. If Frank had concentration issues, Jason had  _ over _ concentration issues.

“At least he’ll look at the road the entire time.” Hazel said apologetically.

Nico looks out the window, before opening his door. “I’m going to help her carry everything.” 

They all sit awkwardly as Nico and Annabeth get their food. 

“Who else really wants to keep listening?” Piper asks, breaking the silence.

“They can’t get back fast enough.” Hazel agrees, her cheeks heating up in shame.

Annabeth had paused the disc, because they were close to a Burger King. It had plant based burgers for Piper, and meat products for the others.

The whole car was itching to find out what happened next. It was odd to think that they were hearing more about their friend’s life from invading his privacy than just asking him.

Finally, the car door opened again, and Nico and Annabeth reclaimed their seats.

“Okay, tastelessness for Piper.” Annabeth murmurs, sending the Beyond Burger back. Piper sticks her tongue out at Annabeth. 

Everyone gets their assigned drinks and food, and starts to eat.

Hazel speaks up. “Do you guys mind…” She trails off, gesturing towards the radio.

“Go ahead.” Annabeth says, seeming much happier now that she was eating her burger.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

Piper made an indignant grunting noise. Her mouth was filled with food though, so it was kind of hard to tell what she was saying.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to the sixth grade?"**

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

“Slick.” Leo says in between french fries.

Piper shakes her head. “Poor Grover and his active bladder.”

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

“She’s the best woman in the whole world.” Nico says, and Annabeth nods along. “Despite the fact that I almost killed Percy, she still saves a seat for me at Thanksgiving.”

Frank scrunches his eyebrows together. “Yeah… I’m gonna need a lot more information.”

“Should’ve asked for that before you joined the family.” Leo whispers to him.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

“I would die for her.” Annabeth murmurs. 

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

“That’s the opposite of what my grandma used to tell me.” Frank says softly, his head bowing.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

“Makes sense.” Piper murmurs, wiping her salty hands onto a napkin. “He is…  _ technically _ … at sea.”

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

Hazel places a hand over her heart. “I love her so much.”

“You never even met her before.” Leo raises an eyebrow at her.

“Yeah I did. She invited me over for Thanksgiving.” 

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

Piper gagged.

“You can’t even smell it.” Reyna says softly.

“Just  _ knowing _ what it smells like.” Piper murmurs, still shaking.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

“How did Gabe treat her?” Nico asks slowly, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

“Who even is this bitch?” Annabeth murmurs, crossing her arms over her chest.

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

“I already don’t like him.” Reyna whispers, her eyebrows furrowed.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

Just Percy talking about Gabe had an uneasy effect on the car. The way the boy’s voice got soft with barely restrained rage.

Everything that he kept saying just made a cold fire burn in all of their guts.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

“Why does that description remind me of Homer Simpson.” Leo asks, his voice distant. 

Piper shakes her head. “Don’t disrespect my man Homer like that.”

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

The car was silent. 

“You…” Piper says softly. “You don’t think he  _ actually _ ever…”

Annabeth’s eye started to twitch.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

Hazel winces, her head resting upon her raised knees. 

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. “Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

“He’s  _ twelve _ .” Piper whispers, her eyes filled with barely concealed hatred. How could you dislike someone so much after thirty seconds of hearing a description of them, and never actually meeting?

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

“Gross.” Reyna groans.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

“He better shut the fuck up.” Annabeth growls, her eyes narrowed in a way that any of them had ever seen when she was in battle with the most terrible monsters. Or whenever her stepmother came up in conversation.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

“What happens to him anyway?” Hazel questions, popping a fry into her mouth.

“No idea. Percy just showed up one day smiling, and saying that his mom’s husband was gone.” Annabeth murmurs, her face still scrunched up.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

“Gods, that must be terrible.” Jason whispers, one of the first things he’s said since he got behind the wheel.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

“Yes! She’s here to save us from the nightmare!” Leo yelps, his fist pumping into the air. Everyone but Jason turns to look at him. “What? Everyone but me can feel loved by this woman?”

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

“That takes quite a woman.” Piper says in awe.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

“Now I want candy.” Leo complains.

“You haven’t even finished your milkshake yet.” Piper hisses.

Annabeth turns around in her seat. “Did you drink your water yet, at least?”

Leo bites his lip, then turns to Piper. “See what you did? Now I’m in trouble.”

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

“Aw.” Hazel murmurs, her head turning to the side.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

“Agreed.” Nico murmurs, reaching for his sword like he was already planning on the many ways to run Gabe through with it. 

“They’re divorced though.” Frank says softly, looking nervously at Nico.

“They better be.” 

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at YancyAcademy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked YancyAcademy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

“Wow, he must be really trying.” Leo hums.

**Until that trip to the museum ...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

“Yes.” Hazel urges, her hands clutching at air.

**"No, Mom."**

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

Piper crosses her arms over her chest. “I wish my mom was like that.”

“Your mom’s Aphrodite…” Frank says slowly.

Piper stares at him blankly. “Exactly.”

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

“And yet he takes his ‘gambling fund’ from a twelve year old.” Leo grumbles.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

“No fucking way.” Annabeth murmurs, cracking her fingers.

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

“Percy is a better man than I am.” Reyna murmurs, shaking her head. Then she pauses. “Yes, before any of you say it, I heard myself.

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

“Punch him, punch him.” Leo starts chanting.

Frank shakes his head. “Usually I don’t condone needless violence, but I agree with Valdez.”

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

“What… the… fuck?” Piper asks, her left eye starting to twitch.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

Annabeth puts her fingers to her temples, as if she was alleviating a headache. “I’m starting to understand why I never heard this part of the story.”

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Piper huffs out a laugh, genuine joy shining in her eyes since the book restarted.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

Annabeth’s mouth dropped a bit, her eyes going distant.  _ Fuck, fuck, fucky, fuck _ . 

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

A few people snort. It was more fun to laugh at this story when it was at Gabe’s expense.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

“Of course she sees the BS.” Leo says factually. 

“YOU’VE NEVER MET HER!” Frank yells.

Leo hangs his head. “I just wanna feel included. I obviously wasn’t invited to Thanksgiving.”

“You were presumed dead.” Hazel murmurs.

“Still!” 

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

“That Camaro.” Annabeth grumbles like it had personally offended her in some way.

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

Piper just shrugs. “I’m not even gonna try to get aggravated at this numbskull anymore.”

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

“So he  _ is  _ pure evil.” Reyna hums, no surprise evident in her tone.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

Annabeth shudders, her eyes screwed shut. “Spiders.” She murmurs.

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

“Aw…” Leo says softly. Piper raises an eyebrow at him. “What? I can’t find romance and sentimentality adorable?”

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

“Sort of like you, Pipes.” Jason says idly.

It was silent for a second.

“And this is why I was sitting in between you two.” Leo stage whispers.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

Everyone perks up.

“Wait? Really?” Piper asks. “Is this the moment?”

Leo starts to tear up. “I’ve been waiting for this for so long!”

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

“Aw, what a sweet and petty tradition.” Piper coos.

Hazel smiles, “I honestly thought this day would never come.”

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

Piper bit her lip. She could remember all too well of the times that she had asked her father about her mother. Before she found out that she was a daughter to the love goddess herself.

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

“He doesn’t have much confidence in himself, does he?” Hazel questions.

Leo nodded, his face screwed tight. “Well… yeah. But… that was before he became the ‘savior of Olympus’, right? I’m sure it’s better now?” But it came out as more of a question than anything else.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

Nico mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, “Typical.”

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

“Demigod problems.” Frank sighs. Leo was leaning his head onto the lower part of Frank’s shoulder. The highest he could reach.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me ...**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

“Damn, that was quick.” Piper comments. “I waited until I was _ claimed _ to resent my mom.”

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

“Why is this making me sad? I thought we were doing this to embarrass someone else?” Leo groans, knocking his head against Frank’s bicep repeatedly.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

Frank felt the words tug at something in his gut. That… or Annabeth didn’t give him a burger without cheese. Gods, he really hoped it was the first one.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought YancyAcademy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

“Why do people wait until we’ve almost died a few times for us to finally learn the truth?” Leo groans. 

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

“I- I honestly have no words.” Piper murmurs.

“Those were some right there.”

“Shut up, di Angelo.”

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

“That’s literally straight out of Hercules.” Reyna murmurs.

“Ooh! After this, can we listen to the Hercules soundtrack?”

Hazel rolls her eyes, and grabs the infamous cd case. “Only if you’re willing to hear it from the  _ actual  _ Hercules and muses?” She shakes her head at the disc as if it had personally wronged her.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

“You keep things a secret, secrets get kept from you.” Piper says solemnly.

“It’s a vicious cycle.” Leo agrees.

“Why am I kind of enjoying being back here?” Frank asks.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

“That is odd out of context.” Annabeth agrees.

Reyna shakes her head. “Hell, even in context it’s a weird concept.”

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

“Poor Sally.” Hazel sighs, rubbing her damp hands onto her black leggings.

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

“Not difficult to tell what that dream means.” Jason says.

“Unless you have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on in mythology world.” Piper replies.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

“Close enough.” Nico shrugs, flexing his fingers like he needed something to stab with.

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

“Oh gods, I wonder who it is.” Leo says, bouncing in his seat.

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

“Grover!” Piper cheers, obviously choosing to ignore the second half of what Percy said.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

“A lot.” Frank says, nodding emphatically, almost as if Sally Jackson from six years ago could actually see and hear him.

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

“What does that mean?” Leo asks.

“I’m not using that kind of language.” Annabeth murmurs, trying to fight a smile at Leo’s grumpy expression.

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be …**

“Oh gods.” Piper whispers, her lips pressed together.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

“I don’t blame her.” Reyna sighs, her head in her hands.

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really happy for all of the positive responses I've received from this. I'm glad that you guys like it! Until next time!


	5. My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me? Projecting onto characters? More likely than you think.

“This is starting to get good.” Leo mutters.

“So, the last hour wasn’t enough excitement for you?” Piper asks, her eyebrows raised.

Leo waves his hand. “That was like a few minutes ago. This is now.”

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

“That would be hell to drive through.” Jason shudders.

Reyna rolls her eyes. “Don’t give them any ideas!” 

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

Piper’s nose crinkles at the description. “I hate that smell.” 

“I thought you loved Grover.” Frank says, confused.

“You can love somebody, but not love their scent.” Piper says softly, sending a subtle look towards Leo

Leo pats Nico on the shoulder. “Sorry, dude.”

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

“That does sound kind of creepy.” Hazel admits, rubbing her cheek on her knee.

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

“He said that too quickly.” Nico sighs, leaning his head against Hazel’s shoulder.

**"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

Annabeth winces, wiggling her nose. “Uh oh.”

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

“So… he was always irritated at things that Percy thought would make him nervous…” Frank says slowly.

“It could be both.” Leo mutters. “You irritate me.  _ And  _ make me nervous. The mind is a mysterious thing.”

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

“Men.” Nico shakes his head, putting a hand to his forehead.

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

“Well, I mean, they kind of tried to get him to believe that it was.” Piper whispers, her fingers drumming against the window sill. 

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

“Wait, is that a real rule? The more monsters come after us when we realize we’re demigods?” Leo questions.

Annabeth moves her hands up and down like she was balancing things. “Kind of? It depends on a lot of things..

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

“Oh, fuck.” Piper whispers, rubbing her hands together. “I wonder what it is.”

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

Hazel hangs her head. “Of course. Dad.”

Nico shakes his head. “And it just gets worse from here.”

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

“Well, there goes  _ my _ theory.” Leo sighs.

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

Reyna sighs. “Poor Sally.”

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

The whole back seat, other than Reyna, was practically vibrating. If it weren’t for their seatbelts, they would be on the edge of their seats.

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

“He- he tried.” Piper murmurs.

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me."**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

Reyna furrows her eyebrows. “Aren’t they in danger?”

“They’re  _ still  _ like this.” Annabeth sighs, shaking her head.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

Piper’s hands went to her mouth. “Oof.” 

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

Leo shakes his head. “I wonder what that looks like.”

Piper and Frank nod, all of them leaning closer to the radio.

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

“That’s all kinds of scary. Especially for a kid.” Piper sighs.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

“What?!” The book club in the back asked.

“This is Marvel type stuff right here.” Leo whispers.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay... ."**

“How the fuck…?” Annabeth shakes her head, looking just as dumbstruck as the others. Even Jason looked like he wanted to know more.

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

“Grover!” Piper yelled as well. “Oh, I swear, if anything happens to Grover, I will get you, Zeus!” 

A rumble of thunder reverberated outside.

“I swear to gods…” Jason hisses.

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

“That's sweet.” Nico murmurs.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

Piper takes a breath of relief. “Oh, thank gods.”

Jason grits his teeth at the raindrops starting to come down. “A little late for that.”

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

“Fuck.” Leo and Piper murmur together.

Frank nods emphatically in agreement. “Fudge.”

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

“This just keeps getting worse and worse.” Reyna sighs.

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

“The Half-Blood Hill pine.” Piper says. 

Leo rubs his chin. “It  _ would  _ make a good Christmas tree.”

“Leo, I swear to the gods.” Annabeth rolls her eyes.

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

“Listen to him, Mrs. Jackson!” Frank urges. Even when no adults were around, he still made the rest of them look bad.

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

“My poor, sweet satyr.” Piper shakes her head sadly.

“You’ve never actually met him.” Annabeth murmurs.

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns ...**

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

“This is so intense.” Hazel whispers.

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

Franks was literally jumping in his seat, moving his hands as if they had just been painted and he needed to dry them. “This is so much!”

Leo nodded, practically sitting on top of Piper to avoid being crushed.

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

Piper’s hands thread through her hair, disrupting her braids. “I don’t even know who I’m rooting for anymore!”

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

“Will you all be quiet back there, I’m trying to drive!” Jason yells, squinting through the picking up rain storm 

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

Leo blinks a few times. “So the  _ monsters  _ can wear underwear outside of their bunks, but  _ I  _ can’t.”

“Take it up with Chiron, dude.” Nico says.

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

“I wish.” Reyna whispers, her voice fogging up the window she was leaning against.

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

“We met her.” Leo says, factually.

Hazel nods, her eyes narrowed. She mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like, “That, bitch.”

**"But he's the Min—"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

“Is- is that true?” Piper asks, eyes wide. 

Annabeth nods, then furrows her eyebrows. “Yeah. Did you not know?”

“No one ever told us!” Leo says, arms waving wildly. 

Annabeth and Nico share a look. “My boyfriend was missing…”

“I was raising the dead…”

“Shouldn’t Chiron do  _ something _ ?” 

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

“Not the time, sweetie.” Piper pouts. 

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

“Really? He doesn’t sound so bright.” Leo says, confused. 

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

“Oof.” Leo grunts. 

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

**Oops.**

A few people giggle at that. “Comeuppance, am I right?” Reyna laughs. 

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

“She is so amazing.” Hazel gushes.

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

“No you weren’t, Sally. No you weren’t.” Reyna pleads. 

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

“Probably because his diet consists of starch and metal.” Annabeth speculates.

Piper shakes her head. “Don’t do him like that.”

“Hey, I’ve known him since I was 7. And I’ve  _ actually  _ met him.”

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

Piper gagged at the word, ‘meat’. “And you people wonder why I am a vegetarian.” 

“To be fair, that isn’t exactly a nice description.” Frank sighs.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

“Ooh! Bullfighting!” Leo yelps, clapping his hands.

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

“No!” Nico yells, his eyes wide.

Reyna sits up right, turning away from the window for the first time in an hour. “Sally!” She says in alarm.

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

“Oh my, gosh.” Piper whispers.

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

Annabeth winced, almost as if she expected this to happen, but it was still too much for her.

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

“What the fuck?” Hazel yells, her hands slapping onto the top of her knees.

Everyone stared at her in shock. “Hazel.” Nico says scandalized.

“Every girl has their limit.” She huffs.

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

“Uh oh.” Jason says, baring his teeth. Almost as if he felt bad for that damned Minotaur. 

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

Piper shakes her head. “I couldn’t take it if Grover disappeared too. I just couldn’t.”

**I couldn't allow that.**

“You go, Percy!” Piper cheers, waving her fists in the air.

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

“You know, if I were someone else, this description would ruin meat for me.” Leo murmurs.

**I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

Nico shakes his head. “It never does.”

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

  
  


“Interesting tactic...” Frank says slowly.

**How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

“This sounds like utter hell.” Piper grimaces.

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

“Him and his food.” Annabeth sighs. Her face was the epitome of: ‘Why do I love these idiots?’

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!**

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

“Oh, my gods!” Leo murmured, his face squished up in distaste.

Piper’s mouth drops open. “That’s what he has hanging on his wall!?”

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

“The bitch deserved it.” Reyna hisses, glaring at the radio like it had personally offended her.

**The monster was gone.**

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

“This is getting really depressing.” Frank murmurs, his lips pursing together.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

Annabeth grabs her ponytail, staring at the curls like they were foreign to her. Her cheeks had tinged pink when Percy described the girl as ‘pretty’. 

Piper gasps, her hands going to her mouth. “OMG! Is that-”

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha! We’re getting to the good parts!
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoyed!


	6. I Play Pinochle With A Horse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just remember: It is canon that Hazel is a Percabeth shipper.

“What do you think ‘princess curls’ means?” Annabeth asks, her eyebrows scrunched together.

Nico shrugs. “That Percy is a dorky simp. What’s new there?”

“Can we get back to the story now?” Hazel asks, though her voice was getting slightly drowned out by the storm raging outside the car.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

“Not hard to tell where that dream came from.” Piper sighs, squishing her face against the cold window.

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

“I do not smirk!” Annabeth protests, glaring.

“Give the kid a break, he was half unconscious.” Leo shrugs.

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

“I’m so confused.” Frank whispers to Leo from the side of his mouth.

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."**

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes— at least a dozen of them—on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

“Aw, it’s Argus.” Piper smiles, placing her hands to her heart.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

“That sounds nice.” Leo sighs wistfully. 

“Drink your water!” Annabeth yells. 

“No!” He pouts.

“No dinner, until you finish your water.” Reyna agrees.

Leo crosses his arms over his chest. “You guys are no fun.”

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

“Poor Grover.” Piper sighs.

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And ...**

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

“Oh, gods.” Nico whispers, wincing.

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

Frank rubs at his eyes. “That sounds really gross.” He admits.

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

**"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea—"**

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

“So… if we ever encounter the Minotaur, it’s only gonna have one horn?” Hazel asks.

Annabeth shakes her head. “Not exactly.”

“So, his horn regenerates?” Frank questions.

“Not exactly.” Annabeth repeats.

“Give us a straight answer, woman!” Leo shouts.

“Just for that, no.”

“Way to go, Leo.” Frank grumbles.

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really ..."**

**He looked down.**

“Not Sally.” Leo sighs sadly.

“She’s not… actually dead.” Nico says slowly.

Hazel hits him in the arm. “No spoilers!”

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

“This hurts.” Reyna sighs, staring out at the darkened sky.

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm—I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

“No you’re not, bubby.” Piper claims, eyes wide.

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

“What is with all this thunder? It’s getting annoying.” Leo sighs.

Jason narrows his eyes at another flash of lightning. “Yeah, that must be annoying.”

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.**

“Not Gabe.” Frank sighs. 

Piper puts her face in her hands, looking pained. “This is really sad.”

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid—poor goat, satyr, whatever—looked as if he expected to be hit.**

“Okay, who is hitting Grover?” Annabeth asks, her eyes narrowed, and cracking her knuckles. “I just want to talk.

Frank pales. “It isn’t me, Annabeth! I swear!”

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

**"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."**

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."**

Piper could feel her heart strings being tugged at. Her chest hurt from the sadness that she heard from Gover’s lines, but the sadness in Percy’s voice as well.

**"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

“I want their friendship.” Leo sighs.

Piper glares at him. “What am I? Chopped liver?”

**I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies—my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

“And now I want cookies!” 

“Where does all of this food go? You’re practically a stick!” Annabeth yells.

“Hey, don’t blame me! Blame your boyfriend!”

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

“You know, cookies actually do sound good right about now.” Piper admits.

Jason shakes his head. “I am  _ not _ stopping for cookies in this weather!”

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."**

“And blue.” Reyna added, though that doesn’t really add anything to either story.

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

Piper snorts. “I’m with him, not gonna lie.” 

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff."**

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

“This is gonna be good.” Jason laughs. Dionysus (in any form) got along with Percy like water and oil.

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

“Good for him,” Reyna murmurs. “Take your prizes where they come, and never let them go!”

Piper leans over Leo and Frank. “Who hurt you, Sweetie?”

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture—an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena—except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

“Do you remember the first time we saw camp?” Leo asks, fondly. 

Jason furrows his eyebrows. “I remember crash landing in the lake.”

“And then you thought your head was on fire.” Piper added. 

Leo nods, putting a hand to his heart. “Good times.”

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

“Aw.” Hazel squealed. “It’s happening!”

“He barely noted my existence.” Annabeth said. 

Hazel wagged her finger. “Don’t rain on my parade, Chase. You two are in the same vicinity, it’s a freaking start.”

“Who turned you into a fan girl?” Nico asks with narrowed eyes. 

Leo’s eyes shift from right to left. He gave whispers to Frank. “Don’t tell him it was me!”

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels— what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather.**

Piper snorts. “Cherub in a trailer park!”

Jason looks out the window, almost like he was scared that the gods would get offended from the descriptions twelve year old Percy was saying. 

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron... ."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

“I knew it!” Leo yells in triumph. 

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.**

“I would  _ hate  _ that.” Piper hisses. 

“But, why would it matter if you knew the material?” Frank asks, confused. 

Even Hazel winces and shakes her head. 

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to CampHalf-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

“Wow, and I thought I had it bad with Drew being my welcome crew.” Jason sighs. 

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

Nico blinks a few times. “That sounds really sad.” He murmurs. “To be familiar with when someone has been drinking.”

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

“Aw, little Annabeth.” Leo coos.

“Even back then, I could’ve kicked your ass, Valdez.” She warns. 

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

Leo blinks a few times, and shares a look with Frank. “You… you really haven’t changed at all, have you?”

Annabeth wasn’t really listening. “What does ‘ruined the image’ mean?”

“That… you looked more smart and calculated than what he imagined Californians looked like?” Piper tries. 

“What type of Hell must it be to hear what your boyfriend first thought of you when they met you.” Jason shudders. 

Though, whether he was thinking about how terrible it would be to hear someone else’s thoughts, or for someone else to hear his thoughts was unknown. 

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that.**

Annabeth scrunches up her face in distaste. 

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

“Aw!” Hazel squeals again. “That’s so sweet!”

Piper stares at her. “I feel like you’re just waiting for moments to ‘aw’ at.”

Hazel crosses her arms. “And what about it?”

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

“What an exit.” Reyna murmurs. 

“Mic drop.” Leo agrees. 

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?".**

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex—Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

“Uh oh.” Jason says softly.

“Is… Mr. D touchy or something?” Frank asks.

Leo pats Frank’s arm. “Oh, you poor, sweet, innocent, baby.”

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

“Because… he died?” Piper asks, confused. “What an odd reason to be glad that a child is alive.”

**"House call?"**

**"My year at YancyAcademy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

Hazel buried her head in her knees. “That sounds ominous.” 

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

Leo raises an eyebrow. “I know we didn’t get many descriptions of Yancy, but that takes dedication.”

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for CampHalf-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

Annabeth snorts. She looked almost as if it had been involuntary on her part.

**"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, sir," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

“And it never got better.” Nico sighs.

Jason shrugs. “I’m pretty sure it’s mutual.” 

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."**

Piper furrows her eyebrows. “Does that mean that civilized young men also gladiator fight? Cause that doesn’t sound right.”

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun—Chiron—why would you go to YancyAcademy just to teach me?"**

“Fair.” Reyna murmurs. “I mean, Pinochle can wait a little while until all of this is settled.”

Leo nods. “Yeah, but this kind of reminds me of that one quote from Ant Man.” 

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.**

Frank closes his fists together, almost like he was in prayer. “Please let him have the right answer.  _ Please _ , let him have the right answer.”

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

“So, either our parents don’t know that we’re demigods, or they want us to stay close to them…” Piper says slowly.

“Or they don’t want us at all.” Annabeth answers. “There are very few in betweens..” 

**"What?" I asked.**

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

“There’s an orientation film?” Everyone asks.

Annabeth shrugs. “I’ve never seen it.”

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"—he pointed to the horn in the shoe box—"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods—the forces you call the Greek gods—are very much alive."**

**I stared at the others around the table.**

“That moment when you’re told that immortals are real.” Leo sighs. 

Jason, who literally grew up with that knowledge, nods slowly. “Totally…”

**I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

Piper smiles. “He deserves all the Diet Coke cans in the world.” 

“So, you’re okay with that, but meat makes you gag?” Leo asks, with furrowed brows.

“It doesn’t live, I support someone eating it.”

“What about plants?”

Piper is silent. “Oh, shut up.”

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God."**

“Wait! Is there?” Frank asks, eyes wide.

“I’m not getting into that.” Annabeth murmurs, shaking her head.

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God—capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about—"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

Reyna winces. “This is like watching a trainwreck.”

Jason shakes his head, shoulders tense. “Don’t say that. Don’t tempt fate.”

**"Smaller?"**

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

**And there it was again—distant thunder on a cloudless day.**

“Zeus was really grumpy back then.” Piper sighs.

Jason squints through the rain. “Yeah. Good thing that he’s much better now.” 

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're—myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

“Wrong thing to say. Wrong thing to say.” Frank repeats under his breath.

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"—I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody—"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals—they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

“Percy’s real name is Perseus?” Leo asks.

“ _ That _ is what you got from that whole speech?” Piper questions.

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

“Smart boy.” Reyna sighs.

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

Nico huffs out a laugh. 

“Why is that funny?” Hazel asks.

Nico shrugs. “Reasons.”

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

Everyone turns to the windows, almost as if they were anticipating some form of wrath from the gods for audiobook Percy.

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

“Oh, thanks for that! I almost forgot!” Reyna hisses, gently knocking her head on the glass.

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"**

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

“Oof.” Piper sighs, her face scrunching up.

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

**More thunder.**

“Doesn’t he have better things to do all day than to send thunder all day?” Hazel grumbles.

The rain came down harder. “Levesque…” Jason said warningly.

She barely turned her head to him. “What? What are you gonna do, white boy?”

Jason swallows. “You look very pretty this evening.”

“That’s what I thought.”

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

“It kind of did.” Leo murmurs, his face turned up in musing. “That could be a stellar place to hold cans…”

“Annabeth…?” Piper asks in concern.

“Whatever keeps his mind off of cookies, is okay with me.”

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time—well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away—the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

Piper and Leo snort in the back seat.

**"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."**

**"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

“ _ Obviously _ .” Reyna adds, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

“Five years was a really long time ago.” Piper murmurs, eyes wide.

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

**"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

A few people laugh at that.

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

Even the way Percy repeated his words for the tape condoned sarcasm.

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

Jason shudders. “The dolphins.” He whispers.

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

“Of course he’s a demigod.” Leo says, waving his hands. “He’s pretty much as adhd as the rest of us. Except for Frank.”

Frank hangs his head. “It’s always, ‘except for Frank’.”

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

“No, not Grover.” Piper pleads. 

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

“Baby.” Piper whines, eyes big.

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

A few people giggled at the thought of Dionysus being grounded.

**"MountOlympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

**"Well now, there's MountOlympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on MountOlympus. It's still called MountOlympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in America?"**

Leo moves closer to Piper. “He caught on to that quicker than I did.”

“You mean… when he explained it to you?” Piper questions.

“No, like, during that explanation right now.”

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

**"The what?"**

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know—or as I hope you know, since you passed my course—the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps—Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on—but the same forces, the same gods."**

“Hey! We were mentioned!” Hazel says, raising her fist into the air.

Reyna shrugs. “Barely.”

**"And then they died."**

**"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in RockefellerCenter, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not—and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either—America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

Frank shakes his head. “It’s always Rome.”

**It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club.**

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

Annabeth waggles her fingers. “Kind of…”

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached..**

“Interesting…” Leo murmurs, rubbing his chin again. It was funny how quickly he went from one crazy idea to the next when he didn’t have food around.

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy this early post, because I had anxiety and didn't want to go to sleep.
> 
> Again, I didn't proofread this. I hope you enjoyed!


	7. I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Try to guess how many characters I'm projecting onto :p

“I wonder how many people we’re gonna meet.” Leo muses.

“Probably like one or two that really caught his eye, and that he bothered to remember the names of for the story.” Nico says.

“You really had to go and burst my bubble like that, didn’t you?” Leo huffs, crossing his arms over his chest.

**Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.**

“Fair.” Piper sighs. “It’s a process.”

**We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."**

**Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMPHALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.**

Leo purses his lips together. He had, in fact, actually expected Percy to do something like a flip the first time he had seen him. 

You can only hear so much about a legend, before you started building them up in your head.

**I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weathervane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

“What now?” Reyna asks, eyebrows furrowed.

**"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.**

**He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."**

“I’ve never been up to the attic.” Jason muses.

Piper shivers. “One of my sisters said that it was haunted.”

Annabeth and Nico share a look.

**"Somebody lives there?"**

**"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."**

“Was that living part supposed to have an extra meaning?” Frank questions.

**I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.**

**"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

**We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.**

Piper shakes her head. “I will forever have nightmares about reed pipes.”

“Really?” Annabeth asks, astonished.

“Just because my nickname is Pipes, doesn’t mean that they’re something I enjoy.”

**Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and MountOlympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."**

**He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

**I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.**

“Grover doesn’t deserve that.” Piper pouts. “He’s baby.”

“You’ve said that.” Leo reminds her.

“It’s worth repeating.”

**"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."**

**Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."**

“He did that!” Piper yells.

**"But he did that!"**

“You guys are so in sync.” Leo says, pointing his fingers between Piper and the radio.

**"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."**

**I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.**

“I feel so bad for everyone in this.” Frank sighs, his head hanging.

Leo pats his bicep in comfort.

**"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"**

Annabeth winced, staring out the window.

**Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age... ."**

“What happened the first time?” Hazel asks eagerly.

Nico waves her off. “You’ll see. Eventually. Maybe. I, actually am not sure what is in this, seeing as how I came about two years later.” 

**"How old is he?"**

**"Oh, twenty-eight."**

“What the fuck?” Piper murmurs. 

“He’s older than us.” Leo whistles.

Jason furrows his eyebrows. “Six years ago. Meaning that he’s, like, 34 now.”

“Almost 35.” Annabeth inputs. “We’re celebrating two months from now.”

**"What! And he's in sixth grade?"**

**"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."**

Leo chokes on the first sip of water he’d taken in almost forty minutes. “What? I could barely get through  _ three  _ years of middle school!”

**"That's horrible."**

**"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."**

**"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

“I have a feeling that it is.” Frank stage whispers to Reyna. 

She turns to face him. “Why are you trying to whisper? You’re saying what everyone else is thinking.”

Because the author of this story is lazy, that’s why.

**Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"**

**But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.**

“I can already tell that this is going to be bad.” Leo sighs. 

**"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."**

**"Yes, child?"**

**"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"**

“Oh, fuck.” Hazel murmurs, but Nico barely reacts. He just shook his head sadly.

**Chiron's expression darkened.**

**"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now ... until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."**

“Is he really thinking about bringing a spirit back from the underworld? That’s a bad idea.” Nico sighs.

Leo furrows his brows. “Didn’t  _ you _ do that?”

“That’s how I know that it’s a bad idea.” Nico answers. 

Hazel glowers. “Thanks a lot, bro.”

**"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

**"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."**

“This is Dumbledore level changing of the subject.” Leo shakes his head in distaste. 

**As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.**

**Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

“Words to live by.” Piper murmurs.

**"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"**

**"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"**

Frank purses his lips. “Do… do most twelve year olds have swords and shields now-a-days?”

**"My own—?"**

**"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."**

**I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.**

“Our tour wasn’t this detailed.” Leo complained. 

“I at least got a weapon during mine.” Piper shrugs..

**"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.**

**"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."**

“ _ Usually _ .” Reyna repeats, gently shrugging.

**Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.**

**"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.**

**Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.**

“I don’t want to be at camp in  _ that  _ storm.” Hazel sighs.

Jason glares at the pouring rain. “I hate you all.” He whispers under his breath.

**Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.**

**Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).**

“Percy plays basketball?” Questions Frank.

“Why are you asking me?” Leo asks. “The last time I played was after my last growth spurt in fourth grade.”

**In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.**

Nico’s eyes widen almost comically. And then he turned from left to right to make sure that nobody had seen his reaction.

**The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.**

**"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.**

“How’d he guess?” Piper giggles, the corners of her mouth quirking upward.

**"Correct," Chiron said.**

**"Their cabins look empty."**

**"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."**

“I’ve always been confused about why that is.” Leo says. “Like, why is every other cabin more filled up than Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus?”

Annabeth opens her mouth, and then closes it. “Okay, what the fuck _ did _ you guys learn from orientation?”

Leo sticks out his bottom lip. “Not to get you angry. That was pretty much it on my end.” 

**Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?**

“Oof.” Piper huffs.

**I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.**

**It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

“And so it begins.” Reyna says, her fingers tenting together in an old cartoon villain kind of way. 

**Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."**

**Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.**

**Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

Piper bites her lip. “Clarisse?” She guesses.

Annabeth purses her lips together, her cheeks puffing up from not letting out air. “We shouldn’t mention this to anybody else if I want to keep having a boyfriend.”

“Agreed.” Everyone chimes in.

**I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.**

**"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."**

“Chiron’s brothers seemed nice.” Frank observes.

Annabeth snorts. “You obviously haven’t met the Party Ponies.”

“The what now?”

**"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."**

**He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."**

**"But, shouldn't you be dead?"**

“I think we can agree that we should  _ all  _ be dead.” Leo says, shrugging.

**Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

**I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.**

Reyna shudders, remembering the one time that she had to tutor a student in sword fighting. She still got nightmares from that trainwreck. 

**"Doesn't it ever get boring?"**

**"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."**

“That’s … nice?” Piper says, her voice lilted in question.

**"Why depressing?"**

**Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.**

**"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."**

“Ooh…” Piper and Hazel coo. Piper’s was more teasing, but Hazel seemed genuinely excited to hear more about young Annabeth.

**The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

**When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.**

“He does drool a lot.” Present day Annabeth murmurs. 

**I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.**

**"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"**

Hazel rubbed her hands together. “I’m so excited! I’ve always wanted to see how you guys started!”

“You’re an odd girl.” Piper comments, leaning her head against the back of Annabeth’s seat.

**"Yes, sir."**

**"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."**

**Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it... ? A caduceus.**

“Did they do renovations to Cabin Eleven after this?” Leo questions.

“We pretty much renovated everything before you guys showed up.” Nico answers, playing with his nails.

**Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

Piper blinks a few times. “I know I never actually had to stay in Hermes cabin, but I know for a fact that it’s not that crowded anymore.”

“Like Nico said,” Annabeth murmurs. “Pretty much everything got renovated before you guys showed up.”

**Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.**

**"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."**

**He galloped away toward the archery range.**

**I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.**

“Poor kid.” Jason mutters.

**"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."**

**So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.**

Leo both winced and snorted at the same time. “Relatable.”

**Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven.**

**"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.**

**I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."**

**Everybody groaned.**

“What a warm welcome.” Reyna sighs.

**A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."**

It was like something sucked all the air out of Annabeth’s lungs. Her face paled, and she shut her eyes.

Only Nico noticed her reaction, and his own face started going a bit ashen.

**The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.**

“He sounds hot.” Piper comments.

Hazel wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Really?”

“I think he sounds hot.”

Hazel gives a side look to a slightly put off looking Jason. “Yeah… I can kind of see that.”

**"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing. She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."**

Piper stares at the back of Annabeth’s head. “Oh?” She asks. “Did little Annabeth have a crush?”

  
“Shut up.” Annabeth hisses, but there is no real bite in her voice. Just a sort of panic in her eyes.

**"For now?" I asked.**

**"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."**

“That doesn’t sound like a very good system.” Frank notices.

“That’s because it isn’t.” Nico says.

“Makes sense.”

**I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.**

**I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.**

“Which they probably were.” mutters Leo

**"How long will I be here?" I asked.**

**"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."**

**"How long will that take?"**

**The campers all laughed.**

“Poor kids.” Frank murmurs, remembering his life before he had been claimed. His life kind of went downhill after he got claimed, but it’s the principle of the matter.

**"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

**"I've already seen it."**

**"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.**

“Oop.” Piper chirps. 

“Percy got in trouble…” Leo coos.

Reyna rolls her eyes. “You are  _ literal _ children.”

**When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."**

**"What?"**

**She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."**

Hazel pouts. “He  _ is  _ ‘the one’, though.”

Annabeth gives her a glare. “Lay off twelve year old me.”

The younger girl just shrugs. “Not my fault young you can’t handle the truth.”

**"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"**

**"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"**

**"To get killed?"**

“He really got a hang of this whole thing real quick.” Jason murmurs.

**"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

Leo purses his lips together. He looks as if he wants to say something.

“What?” Piper questions suspiciously.

Leo shakes his head. “No… I just… I never thought that  _ Annabeth  _ was the one that wanted to run into danger.”

**I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..."**

**"Yes."**

**"Then there's only one."**

**"Yes."**

**"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..."**

**"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."**

“That clears things up.” Piper says, rolling her eyes at the odd wording. 

**"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."**

Leo gives Piper an odd look. “Why don’t you and Percy hang out more? You guys seem to be a lot alike.”

**"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."**

**I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"**

**"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."**

“Can you… like… read minds or something?” Leo asks in horror, leaning towards Annabeth.

The blonde girl just rolls her eyes at the boy. 

“That’s not an answer. Oh, gods, you weren’t secretly a Hogwarts student, were you?” Frank asks, eyes wide.

**"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"**

**"You talk in your sleep."**

Nico narrows his eyes. “You learnt a lot of things from watching him sleep, didn’t you?”

“Okay, next person that questions little me, doesn’t get cookies after dinner!”

“Cookies!” Piper and Leo cheer simultaneously. 

**"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"**

**Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."**

“I’m learning so many things from this, that I never knew before.” Leo says in awe.

**"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."**

Reyna raises a hand. “I’m actually wondering the same thing. Why the fuck is there so much lightning?”

“Probably because of people that spend so much time listening to a book than noticing the storm  _ right outside their window _ .” Jason says slowly.

“What exactly are you trying to imply, Grace?” Nico asks, folding his arms.

**I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."**

“Well… finally someone explains this whole demigod thing to him.” Piper murmurs, leaning her head backwards.

**She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.**

**"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."**

**"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."**

“Oop.” Leo says, the sound feeling odd on his tongue.

Piper pouts at him. “That’s my thing.”

**"He's dead. I never knew him."**

**Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy."**

“He can never die.” Frank says in a nasally voice, waving his fingers ‘magically’.

**"How can you say that? You know him?"**

**"No, of course not."**

**"Then how can you say—"**

**"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."**

“And he’s definitely one of us.” Hazel sighs. “Unless you guys know of any mortals that can control, breath under, and be healed by water.”

“Do waterbenders count?” Leo asks, eyebrows raised.

**"You don't know anything about me."**

**"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."**

“I’m starting to jump onto the wizard bandwagon.” Piper whispers, nibbling at her bottom lip. 

Annabeth flips her off.

**"How—"**

**"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."**

**I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"**

“Poor bubby.” Hazel sighs, her lips pressing together.

**"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."**

**"You sound like ... you went through the same thing?"**

“Aw, he’s opening the conversation.” Leo sighs.

**"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."**

“And she shuts him down again.” Piper murmurs, her and Leo shaking their heads at an imaginary camera.

“I was twelve! What the fuck do you expect from me?” 

**"Ambrosia and nectar."**

**"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."**

**A half-blood.**

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

“Take your time, sweetie.” Hazel advises the recording.

Nico blinks at her. “Hazel?”

“There’s something about the inner workings of young Percy’s mind that I find so wholesome.”

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

Frank hangs his head. “Those are my sisters.”

**"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

**"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

**''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance."**

“Going to be honest, I would’ve been terrified to meet you guys when you were kids.” Leo mumbles, shaking his head.

**"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

**"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

**I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"**

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

**"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

“He still has no sense of self preservation.” Frank groans, wincing.

“This isn’t even the half of it.” Annabeth agrees.

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**

**"Percy."**

**"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

“I’m scared!” Leo whisper yells to Piper.

“Me too!” She agrees in the same, barely hushed tone.

**"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.**

**"Stay out of it, wise girl."**

Everyone turned to face Annabeth in surprise. And when I say everybody, I mean,  _ everybody _ .

“Jason!” Annabeth exclaims, glaring at the boy.

“Sorry!” He exclaims, quickly turning back to the road. “I just… was  _ not  _ expecting that.”

Neither was anyone else, if the conversation between Leo and Piper, and the gears turning in Hazel’s head were anything to go by.

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**

**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**

Piper’s hands go to her mouth. “Oh, gods. No. Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is…”

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

“Valid.” Leo agrees, though he, too, looks disgusted by what was more than likely going to happen next.

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

**"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."**

“They told me that I wasn’t Big Three material either.” Nico comments.

“There was a time when you  _ weren’t  _ scary and intimidating?” Leo asks from the back.

Nico barks. “No!” But, still, there was a bit of vulnerability in his eyes that he hoped nobody noticed. 

Well, guess what, bitch? I did! And not just because I’m writing your thoughts and feelings.

**Her friends snickered.**

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

“I can’t watch.” Piper breaths, covering her eyes with her hands.

“But… it’s an audiobook.” Jason reminds her. “You listen to it.”

Piper glares at him through the rearview mirror.

**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**

“Oh, gods!” Leo jumped, his eyes wide.

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**

Frank shudders. “This sounds horrifying.”

Reyna nods. “I know, right! Such a power move for a twelve year old.”

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.**

“I would’ve punched him.” Piper confesses, shaking her head.

Annabeth allows a corner of her mouth to pull upwards. “Who says I didn’t?”

**I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you ..."**

**"I don't know."**

“Damn.” Hazel murmurs, her golden eyes wide.

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."**

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**

“And… he still doesn’t know when to let it go.” Nico summarizes, shaking his head, lips pursed together.

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.**

“It was a bit of both.” Present day Annabeth confesses.

**"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

**"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, posting this WAY early again, because I'm impatient. 
> 
> And... I'm gonna try my best... but I never really like Luke so... we'll see how that goes T_T
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Bye bye!


	8. My Dinner Goes Up In Smoke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oop, this chapter made me hungry 🙈

“That was a lot.” Leo murmurs, leaning his head against Piper’s. “I’m getting exhausted.”

“Well, perk up!” Hazel yells. “Cause I ain’t pausing this if you doze off.”

Nico shakes his head. “We got Hazel to start speaking slang. She means business.”

**Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.**

Annabeth wrinkles her nose, looking as if the memory of being covered in toilet water was still fresh in her mind.

**She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**

“Hey, Annabeth. Maybe you should’ve gone up. The lava would’ve dried you.” Leo calls, cackling and grabbing his stomach.

Annabeth flips him off.

”Ah! My eyes!” Leo hisses, covering his eyes as if he was blinded.

**Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.**

**"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."**

“Someone’s in trouble…” Reyna whistles, rubbing her forehead from where it had gone numb from the cold window.

**"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."**

**"Whatever."**

“That never means anything good.” Frank observes, grabbing Leo’s hand in worry.

**"It wasn't my fault."**

**She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.**

Hazel purses her lips together. “I know this is supposed to be serious, but I just want to laugh.”

**"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.**

“Rachel!” Piper coos, and Annabeth and Nico share a wide eyed look.

**"Who?"**

**"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."**

Leo’s eyebrows furrow. “Huh?”

“I’m not walking into that mess.” Nico whispers, shaking his head.

**I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**

**I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**

Annabeth just glowers, crossing her arms.

“Do all naiads know Percy?” Piper asks, curiously.

“Yes.” Annabeth huffs, puffing her lips out.

**I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**

**"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."**

**"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."**

“I felt that.” Leo murmurs. “If I’d had a home to go back to when I first arrived at camp.”

Frank puts a comforting arm around Leo.

Nico raises an eyebrow, staring at them through the rear view mirror. “No funny business, back there, you two!” He calls, mockingly.

**Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."**

**"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**

“Technically.” Piper murmurs, nodding along.

Hazel agrees. “The whole half immortal thing kind of goes hand in hand with being mentally disturbed.”

**"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."**

**"Half-human and half-what?"**

Reyna shakes her head. “Don’t ruin the poor kid’s fantasy.”

**"I think you know."**

**I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**

**"God," I said. "Half-god."**

“And there goes all the childhood innocence.” Piper murmurs sadly.

**Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."**

**"That's ... crazy."**

**"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"**

“If they had, we wouldn’t be here.” Jason comments.

“Sometimes I wonder if that’s a bad thing or not.” Leo sighs.

“You okay, hun?” Hazel asks in concern.

Leo blinks in a daze. “Not really, but let’s focus on Percy’s trauma right now.”

**"But those are just—" I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods—"**

**"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."**

**"Then who's your dad?"**

Piper presses her teeth together, shifting her eyes from side to side in an awkward way.

**Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.**

**"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."**

“You guys had a really awkward beginning.” Leo murmurs.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg.” Annabeth replies.

“I’m scared.” Frank whispers to Leo.

**"He's human."**

**"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"**

“To be fair, there is, on average, more children from male gods than female gods. Especially Olympians, seeing as how most of them have sworn off motherhood.” Reyna says softly.

“You… just had that on the tip of your tongue?” Piper asks in astonishment.

**"Who's your mom, then?"**

**"Cabin six."**

**"Meaning?"**

“Athena!” Leo yells. 

“Please be quiet back there! I’m trying to drive!” Jason shouts. 

“Athena!” Leo stage whispers, moving closer into Frank’s side.

**Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."**

**Okay, I thought. Why not?**

**"And my dad?"**

“I think it’s becoming increasingly obvious who his dad is.” Piper murmurs.

“Something being obvious can usually be thrown out the window when you hope it isn’t.” Annabeth sighs, her head landing against the cold glass of her window.

**"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."**

**"Except my mother. She knew."**

“Yes she did!” Reyna says. “I don’t stan no fool.” She puts her fingers up in a peace emoji.

Leo stares at her in bewilderment. “I find it odd when other people act like me.” 

**"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."**

**"My dad would have. He loved her."**

**Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens.”**

“Sometimes?” Piper repeats. “Doesn’t it normally happen?”

**"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**

Leo shakes his head at Piper. “This is getting old, girl.”

“It’s not like I know what he’s going to say next!” She defends herself. “Otherwise, I would be quite annoyed if I kept saying stuff before he did.”

**Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."**

**I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at YancyAcademy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**

“He’s so right.” Hazel agrees. 

“Kid knows what’s up.” Leo preaches.

**"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"**

**"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."**

Piper purses her lips. “Thanks, girl.”

Annabeth opens her mouth, and then closes it a few times. Finally, she huffs. “You didn’t find out until you were fifteen. I stand by what I said.”

**"So monsters can't get in here?"**

**Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."**

**"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**

“Good question.” Frank sighs. “Good question…” 

Jason shakes his head. “We would’ve been way less depressed if we listened to Apollo’s Greatest Lyre Rifts. I’m just saying.”

Hazel glares at him. “If you have something to say, just say it.”

Jason gulps. “No ma'am, I have nothing to say.”

**"Practice fights. Practical jokes."**

**"Practical jokes?"**

Frank shakes his head. “I still can’t look at the Stoll brothers.”

“Especially after you turned into an elephant and almost stomped them to death.” Leo agrees, nodding his head.

**"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."**

**"So ... you're a year-rounder?"**

**Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.**

Annabeth fingers the beads to the pendent that hung around her own neck. Her hand catches on the ring, and she closes her eyes in contentment.

**"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."**

“Now you’re just bragging.” Leo says, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

Luckily for him, Annabeth ignores his comment.

**"Why did you come so young?"**

**She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."**

“Shut down!” Piper sings songs.

“You guys are so annoying.” Annabeth mutters, shaking her head.

**"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"**

**"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless ..."**

Leo makes a peace sign. “The Lorax reference!”

“For a demigod, you watch way too much tv.” Frank shakes his head.

**"Unless?"**

**"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time ..."**

**Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**

“What. Happened. The last time?” Piper asks, slapping her hands down with every word.

“Ouch.” Leo hisses, due to the fact that his leg had been one of the things Piper was hitting.

She purses her lips. “Sorry.” 

**"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"**

**"Ambrosia."**

**"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."**

“I’m so confused!” Hazel yells, running her hands through her hair.

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?"**

**"Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"**

“I swear to the gods, if people don’t start speaking without riddles, I’m going to pull my hair out.” Piper hisses, knocking her head against her window.

**She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."**

**"You've been to Olympus?"**

**"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."**

Everyone, but mostly Piper and Hazel, were on the edges of their seats. Piper was pulling at, and messing up her braids. Hazel was scratching behind her ear. Reyna was starting to doze off.

**"But... how did you get there?"**

**"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. EmpireStateBuilding, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?"**

**"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the EmpireStateBuilding, but I decided not to point that out.**

“Noob.” Annabeth murmurs sarcastically.

Frank blinks a few times. “Olympus is on the Empire State Building?”

“Oh, sweetie.” Leo sighs, rubbing in between Frank’s shoulders.

Nico looks over at Hazel. “Should you be concerned?” He asks slowly. She just puts a finger to his lips, signalling him to be quiet.

**"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."**

“Somebody jinxed it!” Piper singsongs.

“Someone isn’t getting a Cinnabon!” Annabeth mimics.

“Cinnabon?” Reyna asks, immediately sitting up. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she had a _bit_ of a sweet tooth. 

**I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.**

“Me as fuck!” Leo whoops. 

**"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem ..."**

**I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.**

“That’s probably exactly what you were doing.” Nico murmurs. 

Annabeth blinks. “Perhaps…” To be fair, even she wasn’t completely sure.

**Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.**

**The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.**

“I like him.” Piper declares. Annabeth’s cheeks tinge pink.

Hazel narrows her eyes. “I don’t trust him.” 

Nico puts his hand to his mouth to avoid saying something.

**"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."**

**I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**

“Probably not.” Leo comments.

**I said, "Thanks."**

**"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**

**"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."**

Thunder rumbled, just as Percy said that. “He… didn’t mean it?” Jason asks, looking as far upwards as he could while also looking at the road.

**"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."**

**The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easy going guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.**

“Honestly though, I thought the same thing about Percy.” Leo whispers to Frank. 

The bigger boy nods in agreement.

**"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**

**He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."**

**"The wing-footed messenger guy."**

Hazel gives a small snort, putting a hand over her nose and mouth. It went mostly unnoticed. 

Jason glowered at another rumble of thunder and strike of lightning.

**"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."**

**I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.**

“Keep telling yourself that.” Annabeth whispers, bitterly. 

Piper tries peeking over the back of Annabeth’s seat, her eyes filled with confusion.

**"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**

**"Once."**

**I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.**

“Why is it so difficult for you people to give straight answers?” Reyna groans, a headache starting to form in her own head. 

**Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."**

“I wish people would _stop_ reminding us that we’re all related.” Nico shudders.

“Yeah…” Piper agrees, her face screwing up. “It makes me feel gross.”

**He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.**

“That’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard.” Leo says, completely serious.

**I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**

**Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."**

“Same, dude.” Piper murmurs. “Same...

**"What do you mean?"**

**His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until... somebody special came to the camp."**

“Wow, you were quite the little camper, weren’t you?” Leo asks, a small laugh escaping his chest.

Annabeth’s cheeks tinge pink. Not, like, rash pink, but the pink that comes forward when you are out in the cold too long.

**"Somebody special?"**

**"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."**

**The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.**

“Dinner sounds good.” Frank admits, gently rubbing his stomach.

“We ate two hours ago.” Reyna sighs, folding her arms. 

“Exactly!” Leo yelps. “Two _whole_ hours!”

**Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**

**The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.**

**We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.**

“Dinner…” Leo hums.

Annabeth’s face lands in her palm.

**In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.**

**At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.**

“That sucks.” Jason sighs. 

Nico gently pushes Hazel away. “Your elbows are digging into my ribs.” He complains. He looks pointedly at the gap of space between Hazel and Jason, but the younger girl just folds her arms, not dignifying him with a response.

**I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**

Piper rubs her fingers together. “Two? I thought Mr. D only had that one blonde kid?”

“Why do you notice the color of his kids’ hair?” Leo asks, confused.

“Well, all the rest of them have black hair! It’s not entirely difficult to notice!”

**Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.**

**Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**

Frank gently waves a closed fist. “That’s my siblings…” He says in a monotone voice.

**Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"**

**Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**

**Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—nonalcoholic, of course."**

“We want food. We want food.” Leo starts chanting. Piper, and even Frank join in.

“Shut up, or we will make Jason pull this car over!” Reyna yells at them.

“Um… no you won’t.” Jason murmurs, gesturing at the storm with his head.

Both Reyna and Annabeth give him a look that could kill. Good thing he was too focused on driving to see it.

**I said, "Cherry Coke."**

**The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**

**Then I had an idea. "Blue Cherry Coke."**

“There it is.” Hazel sighs, but there is a small smile forming on her lips.

**The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**

**I took a cautious sip. Perfect.**

**I drank a toast to my mother.**

“Good for him.” Reyna says, reaching behind Frank’s head to flick Leo on the ear.

**She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...**

**"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**

Piper made a face at the mention of the meat. 

**I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.**

“If only!” Leo agrees, looking sullenly at his growling stomach.

**"Come on," Luke told me.**

**As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**

“I am going to cry if he doesn’t stop talking.” Frank murmurs, his head leaning on the top of Leo’s scalp.

**Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."**

Annabeth bit her lip at that. It wasn’t _just_ the smell.

**"You're kidding."**

**His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.**

Piper sighs, “He asks so _many_ good questions, and I don’t know the answer to any of them.” 

**Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."**

**I was next.**

**I wished I knew what god's name to say.**

“Don’t we all.” Nico grumbles, moving closer to Annabeth to avoid Hazel’s bony elbows.

**Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please.**

**I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**

“Give me food!” Leo yells, real tears starting to form in his eyes. 

**When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.**

**It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**

“I. Hate. Your. Boyfriend.” Piper growls, hitting her head against the window with each word. 

Leo remained quiet, and Annabeth finally felt herself relax.

**When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.**

**Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."**

**A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**

“Why is that the adjective he always uses to describe Ares?” Frank asks, his lips puckered up in concentration.

No one answers him. Whether it was from embarrassment or not really caring, I don’t really care to figure out.

**"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."**

Nico face palms, shaking his head.

**Chiron murmured something.**

**"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."**

There was a loud belch from the back seat, and Annabeth whirled around.

Leo was gasping for breath, swallowing very hard. In his hand, was an empty water bottle.

**Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

“I finished it!” He proclaims, proudly. “Can we eat, now?”

Annabeth and Reyna share a look. “Did you just finish all of that right now?” Reyna asks, looking very much like she wanted to face palm.

**Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.**

“Yup!” Leo says, giving off another burp.

Annabeth turns to Jason. “When’s the nearest gas station, or convenience store?”

**My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.**

“Aww,” Hazel coos, not even paying attention to the drama behind her.

**When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**

“A few miles.” Jason murmurs, turning to look at his gps for a second. “Why?”

**That was my first day at CampHalf-Blood.**

Annabeth looks again at Leo, who is already shifting in his seat uncomfortably.

“We’re going to need to make a pit stop.”

**I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated. I hope you enjoyed! Until next time <3


	9. We Capture A Flag

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The one where Leo finally gets his snacks. 
> 
> Um... so last chapter I made Piper punch Leo (not like mean intentioned or anything), and I realize why that was bad. It's been a really long time since I thoroughly read the books, not since I was ten, and I didn't realize what I did was wrong. I edited it out, and I hope that none of you were offended. I tried to educate myself some more, and apologize. That's all. You can read now :)

Hazel impatiently drums her fingers against her thigh. “Why can’t we keep playing the book? It was getting good!”

“Because  _ somebody _ decided to drink three quarters of a bottle of water in one sitting.” Annabeth sighs. 

Jason had stopped the car for a bathroom break and snack run. Leo, Piper, Reyna, and Frank had gone in. Leo and Frank needed the bathroom. Piper went straight for the snacks. Reyna went in to make sure they behaved themselves.

The rain was still pounding on the rooftop, and it was made even louder by the fact that the loudest people were out of the car.

Finally, Hazel broke the silence. “So… what’s it like hearing your boyfriend's thoughts of you?”

“He wasn’t my boyfriend at the time.” Annabeth mutters. 

It’s silent for a little bit, before Nico nods his head. “Good talk.” 

Hazel bites her lip, before launching at the radio. “Screw it! I need to know!”

**The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.**

Hazel slumps back in her seat, a look of peace coming across her face. 

**Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.**

**The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.**

“That’s an understatement.” Annabeth mutters. “He once almost shot an Apollo camper in the shoulder.”

“Which one?” Nico asks. Annabeth flushes, looking away. “Annabeth?” He asks again, a warning in his voice. 

“Will was fine!” Annabeth sighs. “After we discovered that it landed in between his toes and not  _ in  _ one.”

**Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.**

**And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.**

**"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.**

“Remind me not to get on Clarisse’s bad side.” Jason whistles. 

“Too late.” Annabeth whispers, and Hazel puts a hand to her mouth to keep from giggling. 

**The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.**

“Fair. But he can canoe like nobody’s business.” Nico mumbles.

Annabeth furrows her eyebrows. “It’s not like he’s listening to us.”

“He probably didn’t think we’d be listening to him either.” Jason says, his eyes wide.

**I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants. Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.**

**Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back....**

“This is going to lead nowhere good.” Nico predicts.

“You hurt me.” Hazel whispers, shaking her head.

**I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?**

Hazel taps her temple a few times. “He be using his brains.”

“We’re gonna need to have a talk to Leo about teaching you improper grammar.” Annabeth mutters, shaking her head.

**Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at CampHalf-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.**

“They’re coming back.” Annabeth announces, pointing at their friends that were walking out of the convenience store.

“Oh fu-” Hazel hisses, launching herself at the pause button.

“Hey guys!” Frank calls, scooching back into his seat. “We got food!” 

Leo, Reyna, and Piper file into their respective seats. Leo and Piper each held two bags that were filled to the brim.

“It’s really coming down out there.” Piper comments. “Who knew?” Jason glares at nothing, his glasses slipping down his nose.

“Cheese popcorn, potato chips, sour cream and onion, barbeque, etc. Sodas.” Leo recounts, looking through the bags. “Don’t worry, Annabeth. I got water.”

“Nah ah. Pass me the one you want to drink. I don’t even trust you with water anymore.” 

Piper pulls out a can of salt and vinegar pringles. “Can you press play?” She asks Hazel.

The younger girl purses her lips, nodding a little bit.

**We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.**

“That’s an odd place to start.” Leo mumbles suspiciously.

“Isn’t it?” Hazel questions, her voice squeaking.

**The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.**

**We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.**

“I’m getting gym flashbacks.” Leo shudders.

**"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."**

**"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.**

Annabeth turns away, eating the Smart Food popcorn, and staring out the rainy window.

“Is anybody else getting bad vibes from this dude?” Hazel murmurs, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

**The camper snorted.**

**Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!**

**By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.**

Leo hums, licking his lips. “Speaking of which, Annabeth, water me!”

“Why are you like this?” She grumbles, passing him one of the water bottles.

**Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.**

“Wait, that works?” Frank asks. “He can just… feel stronger by drinking some water?”

“Just you wait.” Annabeth sighs, her temple leaning against a window.

**"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."**

**Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.**

“Lowkey, I’d want to see that.” Reyna admits. “Not anything against Percy, I just kind of enjoy violence.” 

“You scare me.” Piper whispers, looking away from the other girl.

**The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**

“I think I saw Percy do that before…” Hazel murmurs.

“I think he tried to.” Piper answers, nodding her head, face scrunched up in trying to remember.

**"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."**

**He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.**

**"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"**

“Beat the blonde bitch!” Hazel yells at the radio.

“What do you have against Luke?” Piper asks. “He seems fine.” 

Hazel shakes her head. “I’ve learned not to trust random white boys. Never works out.”

“You trust me.” Jason says.

Hazel’s eyes dart around. “Yeah… eventually…” She adds the second part under her breath.

**I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.**

**The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?**

**I tried the disarming maneuver.**

Hazel was banging her fists against her thighs. “C’mon! You can do it!” 

**My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.**

**Clang.**

“Yes!” Nico and Hazel both cheer at the same time.

Piper raises an eyebrow at the boy. “Nico?”

He furrowed his eyebrows like even  _ he _ was surprised by his actions. “I- mob mentality?” 

**Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.**

**The other campers were silent.**

Hazel, however, was not. She was dancing with her arms, mumbling something under her breath that said, “Take that, white bitch.” 

Reyna raises a hand. “I’m actually with her. I don’t trust him.’

**I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."**

**For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.**

Annabeth snorts, almost as if she finds that very entertaining. There was a dark look in her eyes that was hidden by the reflection of rain and trees in her gray irises. 

**"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"**

**I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.**

**This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.**

“Water works fast.” Leo says in between mouthfuls of chips and rootbeer. 

Frank’s nose wrinkles in disgust. “Please! Don’t talk while you eat!” 

**After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"**

**Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword... ."**

“Riptide!” Piper exclaims, her hands clapping together.

Hazel raises an eyebrow at her.

“Look!” Piper murmurs, putting a finger up. “You can hate some white boy you’ve never met, I can get excited about a sword.”

**Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.**

“Grover’s back!” Frank says, a brilliant smile crossing his face.

“Hey, Grover’s mine!” Piper grumbles.

Frank purses his lips. “Fine. Then I take Leo.”

Leo looks between them, munching on his chips like he was watching a tennis match.

Piper’s mouth hangs agape, before closing it tightly. “We can share…”

**We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.**

**His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.**

**"Fine," he said. "Just great."**

“Bubby.” Piper pouts, her eyes wide.

**"So your career's still on track?"**

**He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**

**"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"**

“I hope he got it.” Frank whisper yells, literally leaning over Leo to communicate to Piper. If the shorter boy disliked the closeness, he didn’t say anything.

**Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."**

“That’s not fair.” Nico sighs, playing with a stress ball that Reyna had bought for him at the convenience store.

**My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"**

**"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want me along?"**

**"Of course I'd want you along!"**

“Aww…” Piper and Frank coo, both of their hands going to their respective hearts.

Leo looks between them. “Well… if you can’t beat ‘em.” He, too, place a hand over his heart and let out an ‘aww’.

**Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."**

**I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.**

“I’m actually curious about that as well.” Jason murmurs. Nico and Annabeth share a startled look.

**"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."**

**"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"**

Leo pumps his fists into the air. “Finally! A good part!”

**Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."**

“Damn, Grover don’t be messing around.” Piper whistles.

“The… shade…?” Frank murmurs, looking at Piper for direction.

**"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."**

**"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."**

**"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."**

“Woo.” Nico deadpans, gently raising his hands in a slight ‘raise the roof’ gesture.

**"Uh-huh."**

**"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."**

Jason’s brows furrow. “He doesn’t?”

Piper waves him off. “Dude, we are, like, lightyears ahead of you. What have you even been paying attention to?”

Jason bites back his words. “I dunno…” He says softly, glaring at another flash of lightning.

**"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."**

“That’s nice.” Hazel murmurs.

Nico shakes his head. “Our cabin isn’t all bad... we have a pretty late curfew… and a popcorn machine.”

Leo raises his head. “Can I be claimed by Hades?”

**"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"**

**Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."**

Nico rolls his eyes, staring at his feet. “Uh huh…” He murmurs lowly.

Jason blinks wearily. “Then how come I’m alive?”

“Good question.” Annabeth says, though she doesn’t elaborate.

**Thunder boomed.**

**I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."**

**Grover nodded.**

**"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"**

“Obviously not.” Leo answered, gesturing at the radio, then at Jason, and then at Nico.

“Why am I included in that? I was born before the pact.” 

Leo stares at him, and then at everyone else in the car. “Have I missed something?”

**Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia .. . well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."**

Jason leans closer. He looked beyond confused, and if he didn’t look back to the road quickly, Annabeth probably should’ve just tested her luck with Frank.

**"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault."**

**Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."**

“What happened at the top of the hill?” Hazel asks, her voice soft.

Jason’s eyes were wide. “I don’t know!” He yells, his voice strangely high pitched.

Annabeth rubs at her eyes. “Okay… what  _ did  _ we tell you people?”

**He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."**

**I stared at the pine in the distance.**

Everyone that was around in the first book series’ mouths fell open. 

“Okay… what the fuck?” Reyna asks, her own mouth dropped open. “This is starting to sound like some demented children’s story.”

“What kind of children’s book would have this in it?” Leo questions.

:I

**The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much. I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?**

**"Grover," I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"**

**"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."**

**"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"**

Frank plays with his lower lip. “So… we’re just gonna ignore the fact that Houdini was a halfblood?” Nobody else responds, all staring at one thing or another. “Okay…”

**"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"**

**"No," I lied. "I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"**

“Smooth.” Piper deadpans, playing with the ends of her braids.

**Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."**

**"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."**

“He’s got him there.” Nico sighs, his nose scrunching as he squishes his stress ball down to nothing and watches it inflate again.

**Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"**

**I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.**

“Well, yeah! He saw you make water grab a girl into a fountain!” Hazel says, waving her hands around with every word.

Nico turns to face her. “Are we sure that  _ I’m  _ the Italian one?”

**That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**

**At last, it was time for capture the flag.**

“Oh, gods.” Annabeth groans, her head going into her hands. The others could tell that this was going to be a fun story.

**When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**

**Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.**

Piper wrinkles her nose in disdain, looking down at her chips. “Did he really have to add so much detail about the boar?” 

**I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"**

**"Yeah."**

**"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"**

**"Not always," he said. "But often."**

“They led the teams the last time we played.” Leo recalls, still munching on his snacks. Though, he had moved from chips to pre popped popcorn. How he was inhaling so much is a mystery, even to me.

**"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"**

**He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."**

“That explains nothing,  _ Luke _ .” Hazel said his name like it was the worst curse she could think of. She wasn’t quite sure  _ why  _ she disliked him _ so much _ . Perhaps she was feeding off of the anger of someone that controlled her every thought and feeling?

**"Whose side are we on?"**

**He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."**

“That was a clue! I was right! He’s evil!” Hazel yells, pointing.

“Calm, girl.” Piper says, her multicolored eyes going wide.

**The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.**

**Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.**

Leo, Piper, and Frank all purse their lips. “Really feeling the love.” Frank murmurs.

Everyone else, awkwardly looks anywhere but at them.

**Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.**

**"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"**

“What’s the fun without killing or maiming?” Reyna asks. No one was quite sure, and were too scared to find out, if she was joking or not.

**He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.**

**"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"**

**Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."**

“That moment you get looked at as if you were crazy when teenagers start giving weapons to children.” Piper sighs, shaking her head.

**My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.**

**Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**

Annabeth puckers her lips to one side. “Is that really what he thought I sounded like?” She asks, eyes narrowing at the Annabeth impression Percy kept going into to signal when she was the one speaking.

**We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**

**I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."**

**She kept marching.**

“Oof. The silent treatment.” Leo whispers. “Never a good sign.”

**"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**

**Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**

**"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"**

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Frank whispers, his forehead wrinkling.

**"Border patrol, whatever that means."**

**"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."**

**She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**

**"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."**

“Aww…” Hazel murmurs. “He cares what you think…”

“Yeah, because I was taller  _ and  _ could easily outrun him.” Annabeth sighs, shaking her head. 

“You still can outrun him.” Nico says.

“You bet your ass I can.”

**It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**

**Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**

“I would pay to see that.” Leo giggled.

Piper shook her head. “Knowing Hollywood, they’d make it like some action hero scene, and so unrealistic it wouldn’t even be funny.”

**There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**

**Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**

**Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**

“He jinxed it.” Reyna groans.

Frank shakes his head. “He didn’t jinx it.”

**Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**

**I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.**

**Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**

**On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**

“He jinxed it.” Frank sighs, hanging his head.

**"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.**

**Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.**

Leo’s hands went to his temples. “Oh, gods.” He murmurs, wincing in sympathy.

**They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**

“Run!” Literally the whole backseat yelled.

Piper looked at Reyna. “What?” The other girl asks. “I’m tired, not indifferent.”

**I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**

**Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.**

**Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**

“This hurts to listen to.” Jason sighs.

**They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**

**"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."**

**I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**

Piper was rubbing at her arms, as if they, too, were numb. “Is anyone else getting kind of cold?” She asks, rubbing her hands together.

**"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."**

**"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.**

**"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."**

“Don’t insult them. Don’t insult them.” Hazel pleads, her eyes closed.

**"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.**

Hazel’s head goes into her hands. “And… he insulted them.”

“Did you expect anything different?” Annabeth asks, leaning her head back.

**Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**

**Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.**

“No maiming!” Piper scolds, wagging her finger as if the kid was right in front of her.

**"No maiming," I managed to say.**

**"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege.**

Nico purses his lips. “That doesn’t sound like a fair trade off.”

**He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.**

“Good job, water!” Leo says with a grin. “Speaking of which, can I have the water, Annabeth?”

**Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**

**Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**

“She’s gonna kill him.” Frank murmurs. It wasn’t a question. More like a prediction for the possible future.

**"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**

**She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**

**Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**

“I thought they didn’t care about the flag?” Piper asks.

“Until they lost.” Reyna answers, crossing her arms, and tapping her fingers on her bicep.

**"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."**

**They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**

**The game was over. We'd won.**

“And he was only  _ slightly  _ maimed.” Nico says cheerfully, pinching his finger together once he got tired of them stress ball.

**I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."**

**I looked, but she wasn't there.**

**"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**

“You were there the whole time?” Hazel asks, her voice very fast and high. 

Annabeth’s eyes dart from right to left. “Kind of…” She admits.

**I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."**

**Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."**

“That’s cold.” Leo mutters, his eyes widening. 

Annabeth glares as if she has explained her decision on this multiple times before. “We won, didn’t we?”

**"A plan to get me pulverized."**

**"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."**

**Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**

“I’m confused…” Frank whispers to Leo.

“What’s new?” Leo teases, poking him in the side.

**"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"**

**"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."**

**The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**

“OM gosh, I think it’s happening.” Piper announces, her hands flying to her mouth.

**"I—I don't get it," I said.**

**Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."**

“I feel so stressed out right now.” Hazel says, her voice breathy. Nico hands her his discarded toy.

**"What—"**

**"Just do it."**

**I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**

**"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want ... I assumed it would be Zeus... ."**

“Really?” Pretty much the whole car asks.

A muscle in Annabeth’s cheek twitches. “Call it wishful thinking.”

**Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**

**The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"**

**Annabeth drew her sword.**

Leo scrunches his nose. “I thought you carried a dagger-”

“Am I on trial here, or something?” Annabeth barks.

**There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**

**It was looking straight at me.**

**Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"**

“That was good advice.” Hazel says softly to the still fuming Annabeth.

“Thank you.” She says, crisply.

**She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**

**By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**

“And he still keeps a hellhound as a pet.” Piper observes. 

“Mrs. O’leary’s cool.” Nico says softly. “But… yeah. No sense of self preservation. At all.”

“What about-” Frank tries to say.

“At all.” Nico repeats.

**Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**

**"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... they're not supposed to ..."**

**"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**

“He who must not be named.” Hazel grumbles.

“Voldemort?” Frank asks.

“No! The sketchy white bitch!”

**Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**

**Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"**

“How…” Leo whispers, whatever question he wanted to ask dying on his lips.

**"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.**

**We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**

**"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."**

“Listen to her.” Reyna instructs, before shaking her head. “Why am I talking to a six year old recording?”

**"I'm okay."**

**"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."**

**I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**

“Aah…” Piper wheezes, her hands going into her hair.

**Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**

**"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry...."**

**But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**

“Oh, gods.” Leo hisses, his mouth open, and his teeth baring.

**"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."**

**By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**

**"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."**

Hazel was practically rocking in her seat, the stress ball squeezed flat. 

**"It is determined," Chiron announced.**

**All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**

**"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**

“It’s happening…” Nico singsongs. How he managed to do that without sounding cheery was beyond Jason.

**"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, so... if you can tell... I am not a Luke fan. That isn't gonna change. And, to be fair, Hazel is kind of how I was when first reading the books (minus all the cursing and calling him 'white bitch' ToT)
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed <3


	10. I Am Offered A Quest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be fair, I’m not entirely sure what I wrote, but here you go!

**The next morning, Chiron moved me to cabin three.**

“It must’ve been fun going back to Hermes cabin after that…” Reyna murmurs.

“Probably why he didn’t add it here.” Piper agrees.

**I didn't have to share with anybody. I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur's horn, one set of spare clothes, and a toiletry bag. I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick all my own activities, call "lights out" whenever I felt like it, and not listen to anybody else.**

“That sounds awesome!” Leo whispers in awe.

“You’re your cabin’s head counselor.” Frank reminds him.

Leo crosses his arms over his chest. “You just  _ have _ to go and ruin all my fun.”

**And I was absolutely miserable.**

**Just when I'd started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in cabin eleven and I might be a normal kid—or as normal as you can be when you're a half-blood—I'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease.**

“Wow… being the odd one out at a place  _ meant  _ for weird kids must suck.” Jason sighs.

“Sounds like Harry Potter, but okay.” Frank shrugs.

**Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back. The attack had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one, that I was the son of the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill me. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.**

**The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible. Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with me after what I'd done to the Ares folks in the woods, so my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise me up in the process.**

Hazel looks around the car, her eyes wide. She was waving her arms around as if asking, ‘Is anybody else hearing this?’.

Nico gently turns her attention back to the stress ball still in her hand.

**"You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."**

**Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she scowled at me, as if I'd just poked her between the eyes.**

“Oop, what did he do now?” Piper asks, eyebrows furrowed.

Annabeth blinks a few times, before pointedly looking down at her water as she took a long sip.

**After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest ... Poseidon? ... Dirty rotten ... Got to make a plan ..."**

Piper and Frank share a look and a raised eyebrow. Leo grabs his stomach, as if his body was finally catching up to the many snacks he’d just ingested.

**Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill me for breaking her magic spear. I wished she would just yell or punch me or something. I'd rather get into fights every day than be ignored.**

“That’s sad.” Nico murmurs, twirling Hazel’s hair between his fingers. The younger girl leans her head closer to him, allowing him to play with her curls.

**I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.**

**BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER FREAK CAR ACCIDENT**

**BY EILEEN SMYTHE**

“Oh, fuck.” Piper whispers, her long eyelashes fluttering.

**Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.**

**Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.**

“What about the lightning strike, and the storm?” Frank questions. 

Reyna nods. “Mortals can be so oblivious.”

Leo leans his head against Piper’s shoulder, and stares out the window. “When did it start raining?”

**Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.**

“Excuse me?” Hazel asks, jerking her head violently towards the radi. She winces, Nico accidentally tugging on her hair when she moved.

“Don’t worry, babes, I got you!” Piper calls to Hazel. Then she stares at the radio, and glares. “That bitch!”

**Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.**

**The phone number was circled in black marker.**

Hazel doesn’t move out of Nico’s grip this time. “I bet it was the white bitch.”

“I’m sure it was.” Nico says soothingly, braiding thick strands of her hair together.

**I wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.**

**"Lights out," I told myself miserably.**

“And now I’m even more depressed.” Leo announces, he looks at both Piper and Frank with big eyes. “Can you guys give me a hug?”

**That night, I had my worst dream yet.**

**I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.**

“LA!” Piper says lightly, her voice muffled in the pile of limbs that was her, Leo, and Frank.

“It’s odd that you immediately knew that.” Annabeth tells her, eyes glued to Nico playing with Hazel’s hair. Her hands clenched like she, too, wanted to start braiding.

**About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.**

**I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.**

**Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.**

Jason winces, just as thunder shook the sky. Why couldn’t the gods have payed attention when Percy first told this story? Sure, the boy might have been incinerated, but Jason really hated driving through the storm.

**The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.**

**I yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting!**

**The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice.**

Annabeth lets out a soft breath, her fists twitching. Hazel notices. “You okay, sweetie?”

Annabeth nods, but it doesn’t look convincing. Nico tilts his head. “Would you like to play with my hair?”

“Yes please.” She says softly, delicately picking a strand at the back of his head.

**Come down, little hero, the voice crooned. Come down!**

**The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.**

Hazel places a hand on both Nico’s and Annabeth’s knees. It was an awkward position for her, but the way that both of her friends relaxed a little bit under her touch made it all worth it.

**I woke up, sure I was falling.**

**I was still in bed in cabin three. My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that.**

“I wonder what that feels like.” Jason deadpans.

“I know, right?” Reyna asks, her voice completely serious. Lucky for her, Jason couldn’t see the small smile playing on her face in the back seat.

**I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.**

**"Come in?"**

**Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you."**

“Baby!” Piper announces.

Frank bites his lip. “Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?”

“Good.” Piper says, with a bright smile.

“So… did Arion mean it nicely when he called me a baby man?”

“No.” Leo and Hazel say at the same time.

**"Why?"**

**"He wants to kill... I mean, I'd better let him tell you."**

Nico furrows his eyebrows. “Uh…” 

**Nervously, I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble.**

**For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive. The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict.**

“They’re not really gonna try and kill him, right?” Jason asks, eyes wide.

“Let’s just put it this way…” Annabeth murmurs. “The fact that you went as long as you did without the gods considering to kill you is a literal miracle.”

**Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.**

**"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."**

**I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?"**

**He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."**

Piper shields her face, as if the sun was shining in her eyes. “Uh oh.”

**I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.**

**But this storm ... this one was huge.**

Frank hums. “Do we have any blankets?”

“In the trunk.” Leo answers, looking completely unfazed by the gentle chill running through the car. The fire powered bastard.

**At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.**

**Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheelchair. They were playing against invisible opponents--two sets of cards hovering in the air.**

“Why is he in the wheelchair if everybody already knows that he’s a centaur?” Hazel asks curiously. “I mean, maybe it makes him shorter, but doesn’t it get uncomfortable?”

“I don’t know.” Annabeth shrugs, her gray eyes holding exhaustion.

**"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity."**

**I waited.**

**"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father."**

Piper leans forward, her chin on the back of Annabeth’s seat. “Are you… braiding his hair?”

“It’s the perfect length.” Annabeth nods, letting go of Nico’s hair and watching it twist itself back to normal.

**A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.**

**"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.**

“Maybe I should try that…” Jason says softly.

“Do, and the lightning that comes down won’t be the only thing trying to kill you.” Reyna warns, the glare she was giving him being felt even without seeing it.

**Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.**

**"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."**

“He’s… joking, right?” Frank asks innocently.

**"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.**

**"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."**

“Oh… he’s serious. Okay.” The boy says, looking away. And to think, he thought  _ his  _ dad had a grudge against Percy. Well… story was still young.

**"Mr. D—" Chiron warned.**

**"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."**

“Would you say that, Annabeth?” Hazel giggles, turning to the girl in question.

Instead of an answer, she notices that the blonde girl was leaning her head against her window, her eyes closed.

**Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass.**

**He snapped his fingers.**

**The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.**

“Mmm, grapes.” Leo murmurs, leaning towards the plastic bag.

Frank puts a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head in a warning. “You just said that you were full. Stay away from the bag.”

Leo blinks a few times. “You’re a good friend, dude.”

**Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover."**

**We did.**

**Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.**

“Dammit!” Piper hisses, getting offended on Chiron’s behalf. 

“Not even  _ he  _ got that upset.” Jason murmurs. 

Piper shakes her head, and then taps her temple. “That’s what he  _ wants  _ you to think.”

**"Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"**

**Just hearing the name made me shudder.**

**Chiron probably wanted me to say, Heck, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast. But I didn't feel like lying.**

“Good for him.” Nico murmurs, still running his hands through Hazel’s curls. 

The girl nods, her eyes closing in relaxation.

**"It scared me," I said. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead."**

**"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done."**

“At least he’s honest.” Reyna whispers, leaning her head backwards and letting her eyes flutter shut.

**"Done ... with what?"**

**"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"**

“What even is the quest?” Piper asks, rubbing her fingers together. “Wow… this is starting to make me anxious.”

Hazel raises her hand with the stress ball in it, and hands it over to her friend. “There you go.”

**I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.**

**"Um, sir," I said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."**

**Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."**

“Meaning he’s scared he won’t take it if he knows what it’s going to entail.” Leo sighs. 

“Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.” Nico deadpans.

**Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.**

**"Poseidon and Zeus," I said. "They're fighting over something valuable ... something that was stolen, aren't they?".**

“I wonder what was stolen.” Frank whispers.

Hazel bites her lip. “Yeah. In a story called, ‘The Lightning Thief’, it’s a real mystery…”

“Wow… so the sarcasm runs in the family.” Leo comments.

**Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.**

**Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"**

**My face felt hot. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And ... I've also been having these dreams."**

“How I loathe demigod dreams.” Piper murmurs. Then she turns to Annabeth, whose face was mostly squished against the window. “This girl knows what I’m talking about.” 

**"I knew it," Grover said.**

**"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.**

**"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"**

Leo nods. “Otherwise, this is going to be a very short and odd story.”

“No wonder it was in Chiron’s glove compartment.” Frank says, a small smile playing on his lips.

**"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."**

**I laughed nervously. "A what?"**

“That  _ is _ a really bizarre thing to say.” Hazel murmurs.

Jason’s brows were furrowed in confusion. “But… if the lightning bolt was missing… what hit the car?”

**"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."**

**"Oh."**

“That’s fair.” Leo murmurs. “Like, what the fuck are you supposed to say to that?”

Frank raises an eyebrow. “You mean… other than scream in terror? Yeah, I think that’s a pretty normal thing to say.”

**"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."**

“Okay, finally! An explanation.” Jason says, his hands momentarily releasing from the steering wheel in exclamation.

**"And it's missing?"**

**"Stolen," Chiron said.**

**"By who?"**

**"By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you."**

“Uh…” Piper says, her mouth momentarily flying open. “What…?”

**My mouth fell open.**

**"At least"—Chiron held up a hand—"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best', 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly—that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."**

“Oh my gosh. This is a mess.” Frank comments, his fingers drumming against his thighs. 

Piper hands him the stress ball. 

**"But I didn't—"**

**"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."**

“That makes no sense!” Leo sighs, shaking his head. “The kid didn’t even know about gods until a week before.”

Jason hums. “I mean… it makes a  _ little  _ sense…”

“Daddy’s boy.” Hazel whispers to Nico. 

**"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!"**

“Uh oh.” Piper whispers, her lips pursing together. 

**Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.**

**"Er, Percy ...?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."**

“Now he tells us.” Leo grumbles, popping another chip into his mouth when Frank wasn’t looking. 

**"Perhaps paranoid," Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam...." He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.**

**How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. Chiron was waiting for an answer.**

“Relatable.” Leo murmurs. 

Frank furrows his eyebrows. “Is that cheese powder on the corner of your mouth?”

“What are you, a dad that cares about my well-being?” Leo hisses, crossing his arms over his chest. 

Piper brings him into another hug. 

**"Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods ... they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?"**

**"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along—the proverbial last straw."**

“Then why did he claim him?” Hazel questions, one eyebrow raised incredulously. 

**"But I'm just a kid!"**

**"Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you.... Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"**

“But… Zeus also broke the oath.” Piper comments, her face scrunched up. 

Nico grits his teeth. “The gods are hypocrites. What’s new?” He then looks out the windshield, as if daring Zeus to say something. The rain lightens up a bit. 

**"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon—my dad—he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"**

**Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"**

**"Bad?" I guessed.**

“More than likely.” Piper agrees, stealing one of the sour cream and onion chips from Leo. 

**"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."**

**"Bad," I repeated.**

Nico let’s out a soft laugh, while everyone else stares at the radio with their mouths agape. 

“He really knows how to set a scene.” Frank says, his voice slightly high pitched. 

**"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."**

**It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.**

**I had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious.**

“He gets angry at the gods a lot.” Piper notices.

“As he should.” Hazel responds, nodding her head in a way that didn’t pull her hair too much.

**"So I have to find the stupid bolt," I said. "And return it to Zeus."**

**"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"**

“Sounds petty, but okay.” Leo mutters, gently pressing down on the squishee toy in Frank’s hand.

**"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?"**

**"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago ... well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."**

“Rachel?” Piper asks slowly.

Nico snorts. “You wish.”

**"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?"**

**"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."**

“Good reason.” Jason says softly.

**I swallowed. "Good reason."**

“Okay, now it’s getting annoying!” Leo announces, eyes narrowed. “Nah, just kidding. It’ll never get old.”

“It’s getting kind of old.” Nico says softly, sharing a wide eyed look with Hazel.

**"You agree then?"**

**I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly.**

**Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill.**

**"All right," I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."**

“That depends.” Frank murmurs.

Piper nods. “Yeah. Like, if the quest was eating meat, dolphin it is. But, going up against a giant or two, sing me up!” 

“You’re odd.” Leo informs her.

**"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."**

**Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trapdoor.**

“I thought the attic was haunted.” Frank says softly.

“That’s probably just… a joke?” Leo says as confidently as he could, but it still came out as a question.

**I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.**

**The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else ... a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes.**

Piper wrinkles her nose in distaste. “That’s gross.”

“No wonder the attic is forbidden.” Jason agrees.

Nico shakes his head. “No… that’s just the beginning.”

**I held my breath and climbed.**

**The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things—severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.**

“Um…” Frank murmurs, eyebrows pulled together. “Woodstock…?”

Leo laughs. “Legends of Tomorrow, am I right?”

**By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.**

Everyone’s, minus Nico, and of course the two sleeping girls, mouths dropped open.

“What…” Piper whispers.

“The…” Leo continues.

“Fudge.” Jason finishes. Hazel rolls her eyes.

**Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trapdoor, but it slammed shut. Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.**

“Oh my, gosh!” Frank says, his voice turning really high pitched. He burrows closer to Leo. “This is horror movie level stuff.”

“Not a fan of horror, huh, buddy?” Leo asks lightly, but there is a look of terrified fascination on his face.

**I wanted to say, No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. But I forced myself to take a deep breath.**

**The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three Fates I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful, and definitely not human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either.**

“That’s the perfect recipe for something ancient.” Nico agrees, nodding his head.

Everyone just blinks at him, their eyes asking the question, ‘how is this normal for you?’.

**I got up the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?"**

**The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies.**

“Oh, that bitch.” Hazel grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest.

Nico pats her head. “Good to see that the creepy mummy hasn’t doused your anger.”

**My fists clenched, though I knew this poker party couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of mist.**

**Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.**

Piper leaned forward, her eyes wide, like she was trying to follow every word spoken.

**His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.**

“Well…” Jason says, swallowing thickly. “That’s good…”

**The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.**

Hazel gasps. “The white guy!” She didn’t currently feel like cursing. Didn’t want to wear it out. 

**Finally, Eddie, our building super, delivered the worst line of all: And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.**

**The figures began to dissolve. At first I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried, "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?"**

Leo was nodding along with Percy’s questions, literally on the edge of his seat.

**The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos.**

**I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cobwebs, too, and I wouldn't learn anything else.**

**My audience with the Oracle was over.**

Frank bites his lip. “I don’t think I can ever look at Rachel the same way again.” 

**"Well?" Chiron asked me.**

**I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."**

**Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"**

“Aw… poor, innocent, baby.” Piper sighs, her hand to her heart. 

**"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important."**

**My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She . .. she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."**

“And…?” Hazel prompts, like she was actually pushing young Percy to tell the nice centaur all that he had heard.

**"I knew it," Grover said.. . ..**

**Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"**

“Yes.” Piper and Hazel say together, nodding along to the words.

**I didn't want to tell him.**

**What friend would betray me? I didn't have that many.**

Piper looks over at Annabeth, as if she was waiting for the girl to answer all of their questions. Instead, Annabeth wiggled in her sleep, and murmured something that sounded like, “Any other stupid questions?”

**And the last line—I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, Oh, by the way, you'll fail.**

“An honest one.” Comments Nico.

**How could I confess that?**

**"No," I said. "That's about it."**

**He studied my face. "Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."**

Frank crosses his fingers. “Please don’t be talking about Mrs. Jackson, creepy mummy Oracle.” He pleads.

**I got the feeling he knew I was holding back something bad, and he was trying to make me feel better.**

**"Okay," I said, anxious to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?"**

**"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"**

Nico winces. “Please don’t be talking about who I think they’re talking about…”

**"Somebody else who wants to take over?" I guessed.**

Hazel shakes her head. “You  _ know  _ who they’re referring to.”

**"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."**

**I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground. "Hades."**

“And… there it is.” The brother and sister say at the same time.

**Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."**

**A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"**

Piper’s head goes to the side. “Oh, sweetie.”

**"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded him. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."**

Piper raises a hand. “I thought we weren’t supposed to say their actual names.”

Nico shrugs. “I don’t know. That rule changes all the time.”

**"Yes, but—but Hades hates all heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon... ."**

**"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest."**

“It’s… it’s just kind of annoying. Like, does it actually work? Or is it something that people just say to scare kids, like the boogeyman?”

**"Great," I muttered. "That's two major gods who want to kill me."**

“Did he forget about Dionysus…?” Frank asks softly.

Leo nods. “More than likely.”

**"But a quest to ..." Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."**

**"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."**

“And this is why we don’t get properly claimed.” Hazel mutters.

Nico shrugs. “That, and context clues.” 

**A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he was trying to frame me and my dad for a theft we hadn't committed.**

**I was ready to take him on.**

“Good for him.” Frank murmurs. Then he flushed a little bit. “Wanting to take on a scary god. Not because he wanted to fight your dad…”

**Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld ...**

**Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god.**

“Ignore that sane part.” Leo advises. “That’s what I always do.”

“That explains so much.” Nico whispers. 

**Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.**

**The poor guy needed to complete a quest with me so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail? This was suicide.**

**"Look, if we know it's Hades," I told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."**

“That’s a fun thing to picture.” Hazel says seriously. 

**"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades—and I imagine Poseidon does—they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"**

**"You're saying I'm being used."**

“Basically.” Frank and Leo say at the same time. 

Leo’s eyes light up. “Jinx! You owe me a soda!”

“Why does this always happen to me?” Frank asks, hanging his head. 

**"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."**

**My dad needs me.**

**Emotions rolled around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. I didn't know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me.**

“Demigod life.” Hazel says in a monotone, putting her hands up in a peace sign. 

**I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"**

**"I had my suspicions. As I said ... I've spoken to the Oracle, too."**

“What did it say?” Leo asks, practically jumping up and down in his seat. 

**I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too.**

**"So let me get this straight," I said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."**

“Just… a normal weekday…” Jason jokes lightly, tapping his fingers against his steering wheel. 

**"Check," Chiron said.**

**"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."**

“What else would a twelve year old boy be sent to do?” Frank asks, his brows furrowed. 

**"Check."**

**"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."**

**"That's about right."**

**I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts.**

“I’m with you, Grover.” Nico announces, even his eyes pretty wide. 

**"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.**

**"You don't have to go," I told him. "I can't ask that of you.**

“Aw.” Hazel coos. “That’s sweet.”

Everyone turns to Piper in confusion when she says nothing. 

**"Oh ..." He shifted his hooves. "No ... it's just that satyrs and underground places ... well..."**

**He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If ... if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."**

**I felt so relieved I wanted to cry, though I didn't think that would be very heroic. Grover was the only friend I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with me.**

Leo sniffled. “That’s… so lame…”

Jason nods, his own eyes tearing up. “Yeah…”

Leo wipes at his eyes. “I love you, bro!”

“I love you too!”

Nico snorts. “Gay.”

**"All the way, G-man." I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."**

**"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."**

**"Where?"**

**Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."**

Leo snorts. “I wonder if that has some double meaning.” He gently nudged Piper in the side. “Right, Pipes?”

Her face was wrinkled in thought. “I don’t get this whole, ’names have power thing’.”

**"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane—"**

“Like, I feel like that rule changes every twenty minutes…”

**"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"**

“I’m gonna guess this is the catalyst for us taking a canoe to Alaska.” Frank murmurs, leaning over the back of Hazel’s chair. 

**I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.**

**"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."**

“Wow…” Leo mutters. “No wonder he rock, paper, scissored to sail on water.”

Jason shuddered, as if remembering the rock, paper, scissors game as the traumatic event that it was. 

**Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.**

**"Okay," I said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, I'll travel overland."**

The other passengers winced a bit at that. They remembered their own strict instructions to stay as far away from land as possible. 

Piper was still rubbing her chin, when her eyes lit up. A thought had apparently occurred to her. 

**"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."**

A giddy smile came to Hazel’s face. “It’s happening.” She whisper yells. 

**"Gee," I said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"**

Leo shakes his head in warning. “Don’t play with fire, dud.”

**The air shimmered behind Chiron.**

**Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.**

“I wanna test this whole, names have power, thing.” Piper announces. 

“Please don’t.” Nico begs. “I don’t feel like fighting monsters right now.”

“I’m not gonna say a monster’s name.” She mumbles. 

“Then who’s-“

**"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."**

“Seaweed brain!” Hazel laughs, clapping. 

**"If you do say so yourself," I said. "I suppose you have a plan, wise girl?"**

Piper had a second of smiling at the nickname, before saying slowly. “Percy Jackson.”

“Oh my, gods.” Leo rolls his eyes. 

**Her cheeks colored. "Do you want my help or not?"**

“Percy Jackson…”

**The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get.**

“Percy Jackson.”

**"A trio," I said. "That'll work."**

Everybody remained silent, almost as if they were waiting for something. 

**"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."**

“Okay,” Piper laughs. “So, it doesn’t-“

**Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.**

A ringing rang out through the car, and all of them held their breaths. 

**"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."**

Annabeth perks up, eyes wide, picking up her phone. Color drains from her face. “Seaweed Brain?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um, kudos. Comments. Tell me what the fuck I just wrote, cause I can’t remember all of it 😭 see you soon 🤷🏻♀️


	11. I Ruin A Perfectly Good Bus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What happens when you have a bunch of neurodivergent kids listening to a nerve wracking chapters? Just a bunch of their personal quirks, that may or may not have been inspired by own, come to light.

Hazel leaps towards the radio, pressing pause. Everyone stares, open mouthed, as Annabeth hits ‘Accept’ on Percy’s FaceTime request.

“Hey!” Percy’s voice rings out, slightly nasally. 

“Um…. hi…” Annabeth murmurs, blinking a few times. She hadn’t fully wiped the sleep from her eyes.

“How’s the trip?” He asks, his eyes wide and slightly puffy looking.

“Uh…” Annabeth looks at the others. “Good. I guess. Why are you calling? Not that I’m complaining, but… why?”

Percy coughs, waving her off. “Oh… it’s nothing. I- I was just wondering… you guys aren’t talking about me, right?”

Hazel snorts into her hand, and Nico rushes to cover her mouth with his hand.

Annabeth stares suspiciously at the others. “No. I haven’t been talking about you recently. Self centered much?” 

Percy nods, looking away. “Yeah. I figured as much. But I had this odd feeling… and then Grover said some stuff, so I just wanted to call-”

“Grover?” Piper asks, practically jumping over Annabeth’s seat to look at her phone.

“Who is that?” Another voice asks, and the phone momentarily redirects to a boy with curly brown hair and big, dark eyes. 

“Just Annabeth, go back to your nap.” Percy laughs. He then turns back to his girlfriend, and stage whispers. “He isn’t feeling too well.”

Annabeth raises an eyebrow. “If you two stayed apart like I suggested, he  _ wouldn’t _ be sick.”

“It’s Grover.” Percy says, like that explains everything.

“He makes a good point.” Piper says in Annabeth’s ear. The blonde girl waves her friend off.

Percy waves. “Hey, Piper!” 

“Hi!” She responds, practically crawling over Annabeth to get a better look. 

“Can I see everyone?” Percy asks, his green eyes getting incredibly big.

Annabeth turns her phone around, and shows him to the rest of the passengers. “Yo!” 

Everyone responds, and waves at the small screen.

“What’s been going on, over there?”

They share looks, and Frank’s cheeks turn incredibly red. Hazel, seeing his state, speaks up. “Um… I called Jason white.”

Jason follows her lead. “I’m trying to keep everyone alive.”

“I braided Nico’s hair.” Annabeth murmurs.

Leo shrugs. “I chugged three quarters of a water bottle in a minute.” 

“Piper summoned-” Piper practically jumps over Leo to cover Frank’s mouth, before sending a smile to Percy and Annabeth.

Percy just nods. “Nothing new there, I guess.” He lays down on his bed, right beside the lump under his covers that was Grover. “Did you guys listen to anything good?”

They felt their mouths go dry. Did he know? 

Nico blinks a few times, before nodding. “Yeah.” He says, and everyone stares at him. “Apollo’s Best Lyre Rifts. You should give it a listen.”

Percy furrows his eyebrows, giving him a look that says, ‘Yeah, right’.

“Okay, I should get going. Just wanted to make sure you guys hadn’t killed each other yet.” Percy smiles, as Annabeth comes back into view. “Love you.”

“Love you, too. Bye.” Annabeth replies, waving, before hanging up. Her smile drops, and she turns to the others. “Okay, what the fuck did I miss?”

Everyone turns their gazes to Piper, who’s eyes widen. “Um… you joined the quest. Let’s see what happens next.”

Hazel turns on the radio, though whether it was to save Piper, or just her general curiosity, no one could tell. Except for me. It was definitely the latter.

**It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me.**

**The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the EmpireStateBuilding on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold. Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions—whatever that meant. He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.**

“Do you think that would happen to me?” Leo asks. “Like… could I be burned? Even with too much ambrosia and nectar?”

“If you try to test that, I  _ will  _ kill you.” Annabeth threatens.

“But aren’t you curious?” The boy questions, his eyes big with wonder.

Annabeth shakes her head. “I’d rather you not die.”

Leo waves her off. “You’re no fun.“

**Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.**

**Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.**

“So he’s a man of taste.” Piper summarises. “Goat? Goat man?”

Nico mumbles something under his breath that sounds like, “Am I a man? Or am I a goat?”

**We waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.**

Jason shudders. “I am  _ never _ going to look at that tree the same way.”

**Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.**

**"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."**

Frank and Jason laugh at that.

“You guys and your dad jokes.” Hazel says sadly.

**I heard footsteps behind us.**

**Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.**

Annabeth winces. Hazel notices this time, but she doesn’t say anything. Instead, her eyebrows furrowed together in concentration.

**"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."**

**Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around.**

Piper raises her eyebrows at Annabeth, who pointedly ignores everyone around her.

**"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these."**

**He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.**

“Ew.” Nico murmurs, wrinkling his nose in distaste.

**Luke said, "Maia!"**

**White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The**

**shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.**

**"Awesome!" Grover said.**

“Agreed.” Leo proclaims, pointing his finger upwards.

Annabeth just presses the tip of her nose against her muggy window. “They’re a lot less cool in person.  _ Believe me _ .”

**Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days...." His expression turned sad.**

“That’s… nice…?” Jason says slowly, but his sentence turned into a question.

“That his dad gave him that gift, or that he’s giving it to Percy?” Hazel asks.

Jason bites his lip, and Hazel understands. She was thinking the same thing.

**I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say good-bye. I'd been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift.... It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.**

“Okay, dude. We see you.” Leo says, nodding.

“I guess he has a thing for blondes.” Piper murmurs, trying to make sure that Annabeth couldn’t hear her. 

**"Hey, man," I said. "Thanks."**

**"Listen, Percy ..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just ... kill some monsters for me, okay?"**

**We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a good-bye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.**

Present day Annabeth winces, as if completely embarrassed of what she used to do. To be fair, who wasn’t.

**After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."**

**"Am not."**

“This is… like…  _ really  _ uncomfortable to listen to.” Leo says to Frank. 

“Shut up.” Annabeth murmurs, but her voice lacks malice.

**"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"**

**"Oh ... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"**

“Oop.” Piper murmurs. 

Nico squishes his face together. “I never knew you had a thing for  _ Luke _ .” 

“Why did I wake up?”

**She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.**

**I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"**

“Probably for the best.” Frank murmurs.

**He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air ... that would not be wise for you."**

“I’m not sure he did.” Hazel says, just as Leo proclaims. “None of you are fun!”

**I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"**

**His eyes lit up. "Me?"**

**Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.**

“Good for him.” Piper coos. 

“You really  _ are _ a fangirl, aren’t you?” Jason laughs, looking at her through the rearview mirror.

**"Maia!" he shouted.**

**He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.**

“Poor thing.” Frank murmurs sympathetically, his eyes incredibly big. “Your first fly is never easy.”

**"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"**

**"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van.**

Leo snorts at the analogy, his hand going over his nose and mouth. 

Piper pouts. “Give him a break. He’s doing his best.”

**Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm. "I should have trained you better, Percy," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason—they all got more training."**

“Yo! He said your name, dude!” Leo says, smiling widely.

“Different Jason.” Jason sighs, rolling his eyes. 

Leo’s shoulders slump. “Sometimes I get the feeling you guys really think that I’m stupid.”

**"That's okay. I just wish—"**

**I stopped myself because I was about to sound like a brat. I was wishing my dad had given me a cool magic item to help on the quest, something as good as Luke's flying shoes, or Annabeth's invisible cap.**

“It’s not unreasonable to want that.” Piper claims.

Hazel nods in agreement. “We all want something from our parents. Most of the time, we don’t get it.” The car was quiet from the truth of that sentiment.

**"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."**

**He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.**

“Oh, my gods, it’s happening!” Piper cries, playfully tapping Leo’s bicep in excitement.

“You’re so weird.” He says, but a small smile is on his lips.

**"Gee," I said. "Thanks."**

**"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."**

**I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when I'd vaporized Mrs. Dodds. Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be ... ?**

Jason bites his lip, his mind still whirring. He sees Piper and Leo and Frank gently knocking into each other with their shoulders. 

Leo didn’t  _ look  _ particularly upset. But his best friend’s words still ring through his head. Had he hurt him? Did he do something wrong?

**I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.**

**"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me. "Its name is Anaklusmos."**

“Tragic history?” Hazel repeats, her eyebrows drawn together. 

Nico shrugs, staring down at Annabeth’s head which had fallen on him in her sleep. She didn’t stir.

**"'Riptide,'" I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.**

**"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."**

**I looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals? How could it not?"**

“Good question.” Piper says, leaning forward. The entire back seat, minus Reyna, who was still sleeping, seemed very interested in learning the answer.

**"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill. And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable."**

“That’s sad, but good to know.” Frank whispers, cracking his fingers.

**"Good to know."**

“I swear, it’s like we have a connection to his mind.” Leo says in awe, moving his fingers around to gesture at the three of them, and then at the radio.

**"Now recap the pen."**

**I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school.**

“Same.” Like half the car says at once. Even Reyna, but her eyes were still closed, and her breath still deep and even.

**"You can't," Chiron said.**

**"Can't what?"**

**"Lose the pen," he said. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."**

“You don’t think Chiron can actually read minds, do you?” Leo asks, his eyes wide.

“Or, just a teacher that Percy asked for a pen all year.” Nico guesses. It could really be either, at this point.

**I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.**

**"It may take a few moments," Chiron told me. "Now check your pocket."**

**Sure enough, the pen was there.**

“Best. Pen. Ever.” Piper says slowly, pumping her fists in the air.

**"Okay, that's extremely cool," I admitted. "But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"**

**Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."**

**"Mist?"**

“Do they tell this kid anything?” Hazel asks, her fist pressed to her cheek. 

“Did they tell  _ you  _ anything?” Jason questions.

“Good point.”

**"Yes. Read The Iliad. It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."**

“Gotta love mortals.” Frank says, rubbing his hands together to stave off the chill in the air.

**I put Riptide back in my pocket.**

**For the first time, the quest felt real. I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill. I was heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare.) I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.**

“When he puts it like that… it sounds just about how bad I’m imagining how this went.” Nico murmurs, his hands carding through his hair.

**"Chiron ..." I said. "When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time before them, right?"**

**"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."**

“What were the times before the Titans?” Frank asks curiously.

Leo shrugs, his hands going wide. 

“Are you okay?” Jason asks genuinely.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Leo answers, his eyebrows furrowed.

**"So what was it like ... before the gods?"**

**Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."**

“They ate humans?” Piper asks, her face twisted in horror. “In other news, the  _ shade  _ that Chiron just threw…”

“Iconic.” Nico agrees.

**"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So ... even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, right?"**

**Chiron gave me a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. They still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."**

“The anxiety that I got from that explanation.” Hazel whispers, her knees once again going to her chest.

**"Our destiny ... assuming we know what that is."**

**"Relax," Chiron told me. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."**

“No pressure.” Frank sighs, his voice kind of high pitched.

**"Relax," I said. "I'm very relaxed."**

**When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.**

Jason wrinkles his nose. “Does he have to keep calling the pine tree, Thalia? It’s really creepy.”

“Definitely an image you can’t get out of your head.” Leo agrees, smiling.

Jason presses his teeth together in nerves.

**Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall.**

**"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."**

“Don’t jinx it, dude.” Leo sighs, shaking his head.

**She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."**

“So… that was originally an insult.” Piper murmurs.

Frank shrugs. “I always thought that it sounded like an odd pet name.”

“You’re an odd pet name.” Hazel says turning in her seat, face completely deadpan. And then she giggles, and winks at her boyfriend, who blushes.

**"Remind me again—why do you hate me so much?"**

**"I don't hate you."**

**"Could've fooled me."**

Leo’s lips purse to the side. “Does that mean that if a girl hates you at first, it just means that she likes you in secret? ‘Cause I thought that was an urban myth.”

“Didn’t Calypso hate you at first?” Piper asks.

“Well… yeah. But I thought I was a special exception.”

**She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look ... we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."**

**"Why?"**

**She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."**

**"They must really like olives."**

Piper inhales so deep and fast that she coughs. Her hands go to her mouth to stop from laughing. It didn’t work.

**"Oh, forget it."**

**"Now, if she'd invented pizza—that I could understand."**

“I relate so hard to everything he says.” Leo announces.

**"I said, forget it!"**

**In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.**

“He ships it!” Piper exclaims.

“As he should!” Hazel giggles, fists pumping in the air almost violently.

**Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.**

**Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?**

“Oh, my gosh.” Frank says, his hands going to his mouth

**I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.**

**Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.**

Finally, words spewed from Jason’s mouth like a dam bursting open. “Leo, I’m sorry.”

Leo’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What for?”

“For making you think I thought you were stupid. I didn’t mean to.”

Leo blinks, looks at Piper as if to confirm that he wasn’t hallucinating. “Um… it’s fine. Really. I’m fine.”

Jason lets out a breath like he had been holding it in for twenty minutes.

**I thought about how close I was to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.**

**Grover shouldered his backpack. He gazed down the street in the direction I was looking. "You want to know why she married him, Percy?"**

“Huh?” Piper asks, leaning forward. “What the fuck? Why?”

**I stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or something?"**

**"Just your emotions." He shrugged. "Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?"**

“He just forgot to mention that?” Leo questions.

“Give him a break!” Frank and Piper say the same thing at the same time.

Leo puts his hands to his ears. “Does anyone else hear a small ringing sound?”

**I nodded, wondering what else Grover might've forgotten to tell me.**

**"Your mom married Gabe for you," Grover told me. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura…. Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."**

**"Thanks," I said. "Where's the nearest shower?"**

“I want to shower just from hearing about it.” Hazel mutters, tugging at a stray curl that was falling in her eye.

**"You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy—if that makes you feel any better."**

Everyone’s mouths dropped open.

“That’s the sweetest and saddest thing that has been said in this story so far.” Leo gulps.

“Sally deserves the world.” Frank whispers, his head landing on top of Leo’s.

**It didn't, but I forced myself not to show it. I'll see her again, I thought. She isn't gone.**

**I wondered if Grover could still read my emotions, mixed up as they were. I was glad he and Annabeth were with me, but I felt guilty that I hadn't been straight with them. I hadn't told them the real reason I'd said yes to this crazy quest.**

“Honesty is the best policy.” Piper informs him, nodding like she had all the answers.

“What about our first quest?” Leo asks her, whispering so that nobody else could hear.

Piper sighs. “That’s how I know.”

**The truth was, I didn't care about retrieving Zeus's lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He'd only claimed me because he needed a job done.**

**All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.**

“Aw… he’s a momma’s boy through and through.” Hazel said, but she didn’t sound like she was joking or saying it to be teasing. 

“I might be too, if I had his mom.” Jason agreed.

**You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, the Oracle whispered in my mind. You will fail to save what matters most in the end.**

**Shut up, I told it.**

**The rain kept coming down.**

“Of course it is.” Nico sighs, staring at the raindrops cascading down the windshield.

**We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Annabeth was unbelievable. She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. I wasn't too bad myself.**

**The game ended when I tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared—core, stem, and all.**

“Impressive…” Leo murmurs.

“No.” Piper says, shaking her head.

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You didn’t have to. I can practically hear your thoughts.”

**Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Annabeth and I were too busy cracking up.**

**Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy—enchiladas.**

“So, either something really good, or really bad is about to happen.” Frank predicts.

“When is it ever something good?” Hazel asks, her head resting on top of her knees.

**"What is it?" I asked.**

**"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."**

“It’s never nothing.” Reyna says drowsily, eyes still closed.

“Are you actually asleep?” Nico asks her.

“Yes.” She says, eyes remaining shut.

**But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too.**

**I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. We stowed our backpacks. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.**

**As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee. "Percy."**

“Uh oh.” Piper whispers, tugging at the collar of her shirt.

**An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.**

**It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face.**

“Fuck.” Piper and Leo hiss.

“Fudge.” Jason and Frank breath out.

**I scrunched down in my seat.**

**Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds—same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.**

“If this wasn’t so serious, I might laugh.” Leo whispers.

**They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.**

**The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."**

**"I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."**

“Nothing new there.” Nico sighs, tugging at the ends of his sleeves.

**"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales!"**

**"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."**

Frank starts clawing at his scalp. “This is so bad.”

“We all know that it’s going to get way worse before it gets better.” Piper sighs, scratching her own head.

**"They don't open," Grover moaned.**

“Called it.”

**"A back exit?" she suggested.**

**There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.**

**"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they?"**

“If only.” Hazel murmurs, practically vibrating in her seat.

**"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."**

**"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"**

“Nope.” Annabeth grumbles in her sleep, though she, too, still looked fast asleep.

**She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof ... ?"**

**We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.**

“Wonder what that feels like.” Jason deadpans, drumming his fingers against the driving wheel.

**Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."**

**"So do I," said the second sister.**

**"So do I," said the third sister.**

“TMI.” Leo grumbles, his face squishing up.

**They all started coming down the aisle.**

**"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."**

“Aw, she’s giving him her hat.” Hazel says, her hand going to her chest.

“You can’t find something couple-y in every interaction.” Nico tells her, rolling his eyes.

“Watch me.”

**"What?"**

**"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."**

**"But you guys—"**

**"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."**

Jason’s eyes narrow. “Wait… so, if Nico, Hazel and I are all in a car at once for too long…”

“Not to mention, sitting right next to each other…” Nico continues.

Leo opens his mouth. “We’re about to die, aren’t we?”

**"I can't just leave you."**

**"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"**

**My hands trembled. I felt like a coward, but I took the Yankees cap and put it on.**

“Grover…” Piper says softly, reaching out as if reaching for the satyr.

**When I looked down, my body wasn't there anymore.**

**I started creeping up the aisle. I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.**

**Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. My heart was pounding.**

Hazel was pinching at her top lip, gently bumping shoulders with Nico as she rocked back and forth.

**Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.**

**I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row.**

“Fuck.” Leo hisses, his fingers pulling at his curls.

**The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same—I guess those couldn't get any uglier— but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.**

“That sounds terrifying, but, also, the shade? It was thrown.” Piper whispers, her hand in front of her face like telling someone to stop.

**The Furies surrounded Grover and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"**

**The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something, all right.**

“Hopefully not something that puts a negative spin on the kids.” Jason says.

“Just by saying that, you know that they’re already doomed.” Piper murmurs.

**"He's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"**

**The Furies raised their whips.**

**Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.**

“Good for him!” Frank says enthusiastically, waving his fists around.

**What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.**

“I thought that was my thing.” Leo pouts.

“Just hear what he did, and  _ then  _ see if he one upped you.” Piper advises him.

**The bus driver was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rearview mirror.**

**Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.**

“Yeah, he totally won.” Piper says, eyes wide. 

Annabeth jerks up, as if water had been poured on top of her. “I  _ knew  _ that was him!” 

**"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Hey—whoa!"**

Nico puts a gentle hand on Annabeth’s shoulder. “Calm down. Calm down. Go back to sleep.”

She slowly lowers her head back onto Nico’s shoulder, eyes drifting shut. Annabeth looked like she hadn’t even woken up. Which, to be fair, is probably what happened.

**We wrestled for the wheel. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.**

**We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.**

“This is  _ so  _ bad.” Hazel whispers. “What happened to all of those other cars and people on the bus?”

Leo nods. “Yeah. It’s like one of those car chase scenes in every MCU movie.”

**Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.**

**Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.**

“Thank gods.” Frank sighs, slumping in his seat.

“And I thought  _ this  _ car ride was dangerous.” Jason murmurs, his eyes wide as if he was imagining their journey going in the same direction.

**The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.**

**The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.**

“This is  _ such _ a mess.” Nico murmurs, his fingers going to play with a stray curl of Annabeth’s hair that was on his shoulder. He stared at it, as if the hair had put him in a deep trance.

**I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"**

**The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver my F- math test. Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.**

**Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward me like huge nasty lizards.**

Piper shudders, wrapping her arms around herself like lizards were coming towards her at that moment.

**"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."**

**"I liked you better as a math teacher," I told her.**

“That’s saying something.” Leo murmurs, lightly shaking his head.

**She growled.**

**Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.**

**I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.**

**The Furies hesitated.**

“Yes!” Hazel exclaims, her hands going into the air.

“Shh…” Nico hisses, gesturing towards the slumbering warriors. 

“Yes.” Hazel whispers, her hands going into the air yet again.

**Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.**

**"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."**

“That actually sounds like a pretty good deal.” Frank admits, still playing with the red stress ball.

**"Nice try," I told her.**

**"Percy, look out!" Annabeth cried.**

**Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around my sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at me.**

“I’m so stressed out right now.” Piper starts tugging at her earlobes.

**My hand felt like it was wrapped in molten lead, but I managed not to drop Riptide. I stuck the Fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. I turned and sliced the Fury on the right. As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust. Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold and yanked her backward while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.**

“Why do I get the feeling that twelve year old Annabeth could totally kick my butt?” Leo asks.

Nico shrugs. “Because she could.”

“Fair.” Leo acknowledges.

**"Ow!" he yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"**

**The Fury I'd hilt-slammed came at me again, talons ready, but I swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.**

“I’m torn between being grossed out, and cheering.” Hazel says, rubbing her hands against her denim covered knees.

**Mrs. Dodds was trying to get Annabeth off her back. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but Annabeth held on while Grover got Mrs. Dodds's legs tied up in her own whip. Finally they both shoved her backward into the aisle. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.**

**"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"**

“Both of those statements can still be true.” Nico deadpans, his left hand running through Hazel’s hair.

**"Braccas meas vescimini!" I yelled.**

**I wasn't sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant "Eat my pants!"**

Piper laughs. “Bart Simpson cameo!” 

“Does that count if this is real life?” Leo asks her.

“It’s a matter of opinion.” 

**Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.**

**"Get out!" Annabeth yelled at me. "Now!" I didn't need any encouragement.**

**We rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!" A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped my photograph before I could recap my sword.**

“Oh, no.” Jason sighs, briefly closing his eyes.

**"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our—"**

**BOOOOOM!**

“What the fuck?” Hazel let slip out of her mouth, eyes wide.

**The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.**

“Once is coincidence, twice is a pattern.” Leo mutters, biting at his lip.

**"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"**

**We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I’m a little late. I got this chapter out in, like, three hours, so cut me some slack. 
> 
> If you didn’t already know, I posted a one shot a week or two ago. I’m going to add another story to go along with it later today maybe. Take a look at it if you want 🤷🏻
> 
> Until next time <3


	12. We Visit The Garden Gnome Emporium

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It legitimately took me twenty minutes to copy and paste this whole thing. I don't think I like this chapter, but tell me what you think!

“I need to stretch my legs.” Jason had informed them when they asked him why they were suddenly parked outside some new store. “And get a coffee.”

The backseat had come alive for that. Well, except for Reyna. She was still sleeping peacefully. Nobody wanted to wake her in risk of a slow and painful death.

“Alright, anything else?” Leo yelled, from outside the car, staring into the trunk. 

“Just the blankets!” Piper calls back.

Leo comes back into the car, crawling over Piper, but holding three large blankets in his arms. 

“You’re wet.” Frank shivers. 

“You’re  _ welcome _ .” Leo mutters, steam already rising off of him as he settles down.

“Thank you!” Piper chirps, grabbing a mostly dry blanket from the top. She drapes it over her, Leo’s and Frank’s laps, sighing as the warmth takes over her.

“Yeah, thanks!” Frank agrees, wrapping his arms around Leo’s shoulders.

Nico drapes a blanket around him, Hazel, and Annabeth. The blonde, who had just woken up due to the lack of movement, was searching through her wallet. 

“What are you looking for?” Nico asks her. 

Annabeth doesn’t answer. Hazel is just about to turn the radio back on, when the older girl exclaims, “Aha! I found it!”.

Annabeth waves a Polaroid around. “We took this before our first quest! I knew I still had it somewhere!”

She hands it to Nico, and Hazel looks at it over his shoulder. 

The photo consisted of little Annabeth and Percy on either side of Grover. Annabeth was in the middle of rolling her eyes, her back turned to Percy, and arms folded over her chest. Percy was looking confused, eyebrows furrowed, and arms moved in a shrug. They looked like they were in the middle of an argument. Grover was in the middle, a hand on the top of each of their backs. A bright, fake smile was plastered onto his face. 

When Nico and Hazel are finished, they pass it to the back seat. 

“Aww, poor Grover.” Piper murmurs, her lips pursed to one side. 

“You guys were adorable.” Frank tells Annabeth. 

Hazel pouts. “Can I press play?”

“Won’t Jason be confused when he comes back?” Piper asks suspiciously. 

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Nico says. “Pretty sure he got out so that he didn’t have to listen right now.”

**In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.**

“Fair.” Leo concedes, resting his head on Piper’s shoulder. 

**So there we were, Annabeth and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.**

“That sounds incredibly gross.” Nico sighs. 

“The Hudson River can’t be that bad, right?” Frank asks, his eyes big. 

Annabeth snorts into her hand. “Have Percy tel you the story of how he stopped ships from making it to the Battle of Manhattan.”

**Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."**

**I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."**

“Tell them, Annabeth!” Hazel encourages. “They need to get away!”

“I know that. Why are you yelling at me like I don’t?” Annabeth asks, squishing closer to the window, her eyes scrunched together in confusion and pain from a minor headache. 

**"All our money was back there," I reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."**

**"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"**

**"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"**

“Sometimes, it’s the only way.” Leo says softly.

Piper and Frank, the only people that hear him, both give him a death glare.

**"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."**

**"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."**

Piper snorts, but covers it up with a cough.

“Nice save.” Leo whispers, giving her an ‘ok’ sign.

**"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.**

“Be nice to him.” Frank pleads.

“He’s like my best friend now.” Annabeth murmurs, crossing her arms over her chest.

Piper purses her lips. “Well, that hurts. But whatever.”

**Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."**

**We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.**

“He really know how to paint a word picture, doesn’t he?” Nico asks, lightly shaking his head.

**After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."**

**"We're a team, right?"**

“Aw…” Hazel coos, her hand going over her heart. 

“What is the matter with you?” Annabeth asks in annoyance.

“It’s like watching everything come together. Seeing a picture being painted.” 

Leo raises a finger. “In other words, give her a break, she be a fangirl.”

**She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."**

**The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.**

“Simp!” Nico catcalls, his hands cupping around his mouth. 

“That’s kind of rude.” Frank murmurs.

Nico furrows his eyebrows. “That’s what he  _ prefers  _ to be called.”

**"You haven't left CampHalf-Blood since you were seven?" I asked her.**

**"No ... only short field trips. My dad—"**

The back seat shares a look. Annabeth still wasn’t very talkative when it came to her family. All they knew was that one of her cousins died, and then didn’t die around a year ago. Even that story wasn’t totally clear.

**"The history professor."**

**"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, CampHalf-Blood Is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."**

**If I didn't know better, I could've sworn I heard doubt in her voice.**

Annabeth pinches at her lower lip, looking at the light spilling out of the convenience store. “Coffee sounds really good right now.” She admits.

**"You're pretty good with that knife," I said.**

**"You think so?"**

**"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."**

Hazel was literally giggling, her cheeks flushing with joy. Her fingers pressed together, almost as if she was some sort of evil genius watching a plan unfold perfectly. 

**I couldn't really see, but I thought she might've smiled.**

**"You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you ... Something funny back on the bus ..."**

**Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.**

“What the fuck?” Piper asks. “I was so invested! What happened now?”

**"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"**

“That checks out.” Leo shudders. “Remember that time that Coach Hedge tried to raise our spirits by playing We Didn’t Start The Fire?” 

“I was genuinely considering just jumping off the boat at that point.” Nico admits, gently shaking his head. 

**He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.**

Leo snorts. “I’m starting to like this dude.”

Frank stares at Leo like he couldn’t trust him. “ _ Starting to _ ?”

**Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on my head.**

**Add to the list of superpowers I did not have: infrared vision.**

“That list is probably way smaller than the list of powers he  _ does  _ have.” Reyna murmurs, stretching her arms, as she sits upright. She moves her neck to the side, a loud cracking sound following her movements. 

“Hey! You’re up!” Nico announces. 

“Unfortunately.” She grumbles. “I thought I heard the word coffee, and that woke me up.”

**After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, I started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. I could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food. I realized I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where we lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue. This boy needed a double cheeseburger.**

“Mmm… cheesebur-”

“DO NOT MAKE ME COME BACK THERE!” Annabeth hisses, turning in her seat, and angrily pointing her finger at Leo. “Eat your chips.”

**We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.**

**It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like I'd hoped. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.**

“I already have a bad feeling about this.” Piper whispers, reaching into Frank’s palm to grab the stress ball.

“Because it smells like burgers?” Frank asks genuinely. 

Piper blinks a few times. “Maybe…”

**To me, it looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.**

**"What the heck does that say?" I asked.**

**"I don't know," Annabeth said.**

“That’s a first.” Leo says. Annabeth flips him off, before burying her hands under the blanket covering her lap.

**She loved reading so much, I'd forgotten she was dyslexic, too.**

**Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."**

Nico wrinkles his nose. “I hate garden gnomes.”

“Persephone’s Garden?” Hazel asks.

“Persephone’s Garden.” He agrees.

**Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.**

Annabeth winces, biting at her upper lip.

**I crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.**

**"Hey ..." Grover warned.**

“I feel like they should listen to Grover.” Frank says, leaning closer to Piper and Leo.

**"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."**

**"Snack bar," I said wistfully.**

**"Snack bar," she agreed.**

“This has bad idea written all over it.” Leo murmurs.

“And that’s saying something.” Piper murmurs, puckering her lips.

**"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."**

**We ignored him.**

“You weren’t there.” Annabeth says slowly, in response to all of the questioning looks she was given. “It smelled so good. And tasted even better…” She trails off, her eyes glazed over in memory.

“Sweetie?” Hazel asks, placing a hand on Annabeth’s shoulder.

“I’m fine… I’m fine.”

**The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.**

**"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"**

“Who buys cement children?” Leo asks. “That just sounds like poor business strategy.”

**We stopped at the warehouse door.**

**"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."**

**"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"**

“Why isn’t he affected by this like the rest of you?” Frank asks.

Annabeth shakes her head. “Stupid vegetarianism.”

“Hey!” Piper exclaims, arms crossed over her chest.

**"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."**

**"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him..**

**"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These statues are ... looking at me."**

“We’ll talk about the creepy statues in a second, but… cheese and aluminum count as vegetables?” Hazel questions.

“Does he eat goat cheese?” Leo replies, his eyebrows raising.

“Even ask that, and he’ll bite you. Not kidding. Just ask Connor Stoll.” Annabeth warns.

**Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman—at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.**

“I suggest they run.” Reyna sighs.

“Agreed.” Everyone answers.

**Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"**

**"They're ... um ..." Annabeth started to say.**

**"We're orphans," I said.**

“Good start…” Leo murmurs, eyebrow raised, and hand rubbing against his chin.

**"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"**

**"We got separated from our caravan," I said. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"**

“Strong ending. I approve the cover story.” 

“Circus caravan.” Frank repeats, blinking a few times.

**"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."**

Nico’s eyes widen. “Wait! Is she saying Em? As in E-M? Or _ M _ , like, M’n’M?”

“What’s the difference?” Piper asks.

“Because… I’ve definitely heard of Aunty Em’s before…”

**We thanked her and went inside.**

**Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus caravan?"**

**"Always have a strategy, right?"**

“Points to him for having that on the top of his head.” Hazel shrugs, rubbing her thumbs over her nails.

**"Your head is full of kelp."**

**The warehouse was filled with more statues—people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size. But mostly, I was thinking about food.**

Piper scrunches her nose in thought. “Wait a second… Em…”

Nico sucks in a breath. “Right. That’s how I heard of it…” He murmurs under his breath.

“No spoilers.” Hazel says quickly, her knee bouncing up and down.

**Go ahead, call me an idiot for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because I was hungry, but I do impulsive stuff sometimes. Plus, you've never smelled Aunty Em's burgers. The aroma was like laughing gas in the dentist's chair—it made everything else go away. I barely noticed Grover's nervous whimpers, or the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow me, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us.**

Frank’s mouth drips open, his eyes blinking quite a few times. “What…?”

**All I cared about was finding the dining area. And sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.**

**"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.**

**"Awesome," I said.**

“Statues…” Piper says slowly.

**"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."**

“Em…  _ M _ …”

**Before I could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."**

“Fuck!” She says just a little too loudly, her hands going to her mouth.

Annabeth winces. “It was a hard time…”

**"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.**

**Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must've been my imagination.**

“I feel like I’m missing something.” Leo says to Frank.

“I’m with you buddy.” 

Hazel was just listening to the sound, barely paying attention to the chaos around her.

**"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child." Only later did I wonder how she knew Annabeth's name, even though we had never introduced ourselves.**

**Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before we knew it, she'd brought us plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.**

Leo grabbed a few handfuls of popcorn, shoving it down his throat with gusto. It wasn’t the most healthy thing in the world, but damn! Could Percy make a boy hungry.

**I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.**

**Annabeth slurped her shake.**

“Oh! So it’s okay for  _ you  _ to have a milkshake!” Leo says in between mouthfuls of popcorn. 

Annabeth sighs. “I think I’m going to go inside and get some coffee.”

“Some for me too, please!” Reyna pleads. “Nothing in it!” 

Annabeth salutes her, exiting the car. She, too, didn’t look too upset to leave.

**Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.**

**"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.**

And then Frank started jumping up and down in his seat. “Oh! That’s! Oh!” 

Reyna gently pats his bicep. “Good… good… you got it. Now, can you please stop jumping, you’re crushing my leg.”

**I listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.**

**"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."**

**"I take vitamins. For my ears."**

“Precious bean.” Piper sighs, though her eyes are still filled with alarm.

**"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."**

**Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face, but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.**

Leo fiddled with the sleeves of his shirt. “It’s Medusa isn’t it?”

“Well, there goes that run on joke.” Reyna sighs, rubbing her arms in an attempt to ward off the chill in the air.

**"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.**

**"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."**

“Persephone used to order from her.” Nico sighs. “A few years ago she sent me there to gather a few statues for the garden. It was… an experience.”

**"A lot of business on this road?"**

**"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."**

**My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.**

Piper’s mouth drops open in horror. “This is so terrible on so many levels! What the fuck?”

“First the tree girl, and now the statue girl…” Leo agrees, trailing off, and shaking his head.

**"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."**

**"You make these statues yourself?" I asked.**

Hazel puts her thumb to her lips, though she doesn’t bite at it. “This is a mess.” She murmurs. 

**"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her.**

“And then, five years later, he killed her sisters.” Frank says, leaning his head on Leo’s.

**Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"**

**"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."**

“When I was in second grade, my teachers would tell me that she said she was more beautiful than Athena, so she cursed her.” Leo informs the group, rubbing his hands against the soft blanket thrown over him. 

“Far more family friendly than anything else that was in this story.” Piper laughs.

**I wasn't sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her. My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy. Poor old lady. Who would want to hurt somebody so nice?**

**"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."**

**She sounded tense. I wasn't sure why. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.**

Nico pulls at a strand of his hair. “I’m going to lose my hair by the end of this. I can feel it now.”

**"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."**

**She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.**

“This is getting creepy.” Reyna shakes her head. 

“ _ Getting _ ?” Piper asks the other girl.

**"We really should go."**

**"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"**

**I didn't want to leave. I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.**

“ _ Leave _ !” The back seat (including Reyna this time) pleads. 

**"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"**

**"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.**

Hazel winces. “Oh, gods.” She sighs, letting a breath out through her nose. 

**"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."**

**Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy—"**

**"Sure we can," I said. I was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed us for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"**

Leo laughs, like genuinely laughs, his shoulders shaking. 

“It’s not- it’s not that funny…” Piper murmurs, but she kept being broken off by her own laughter. 

“Then how come you’re laughing?” Frank asks, a smile on his face. 

“His come you are?”

This went on for a while, but I can’t be bothered to go through it all, just like Reyna and Hazel couldn’t be bothered to listen to it. 

**"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."**

**I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues.**

**Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girl in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side."**

“That’s just rubbing salt in the wound.” Nico mutters, gently shaking his head. 

**"Not much light for a photo," I remarked.**

**"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"**

“Oh, gods.” Reyna groans, her side vibrating from the force of Frank’s infectious laughter. 

**"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.**

**Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"**

At this point the back seat finally quieted down, their breaths being held as they stared at the radio. Every now and then, however, Leo still let out a small giggle. 

**Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."**

**"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."**

**She still had no camera in her hands.**

Reyna closed her eyes tightly, as if she was gaining a headache. Whether it was from her friend’s antics, or the events of the story is unclear. (Did I use that line already?)

**"Percy—" Annabeth said.**

**Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth, but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady's voice.**

“Felt.” Leo admits, twiddling his fingers together. 

**"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil...."**

**"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.**

**"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"**

Hazel was practically jumping in her seat, her lips caught in between her teeth. Yes. Both lips. 

**"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.**

**"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench.**

“Listen to Annabeth!” Piper yells, literal tears in her eyes. Sure, they came from her previous laughing fit, but they were still there. 

**I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet.**

**I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But I was too dazed to move.**

Nico scratches at his scalp, rubbing his hair in between his hands. 

**Then I heard a strange, rasping sound above me. My eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.**

**I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, "No! Don't!"**

“This is  _ so  _ stressful!” Frank hisses. 

“Maybe Jason and Annabeth were onto something when they left.” Leo sighs, gently shaking his head. 

**More rasping—the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from ... from about where Aunty Em's head would be.**

They could hear the way that little Percy’s voice went up an octave as he talked about the woman. No matter how long it was that he recorded this, it still seemed to have shaken him. 

**"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.**

**I couldn't move. I stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.**

**"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."**

“Don’t!” Everyone else commands him. 

“Also, this woman is, like, Luke levels of creepy. Does she  _ have  _ to keep complimenting the young children?” Hazel groans, pressing the palms of her hands against her closed eyes until she saw stars. 

**I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens— a gazing ball. I could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.**

**Aunty Em.**

**Aunty "M."**

“There we are.” Reyna encourages, moving her hands as if she was pushing Percy along. 

**How could I have been so stupid?**

**Think, I told myself. How did Medusa die in the myth?**

“He went for the head.” Leo says in a deep voice. “Am I right?”

Piper shakes her head. “It is still too soon, dude.”

**But I couldn't think. Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by my namesake, Perseus. She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my face.**

**"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited me to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."**

“So… that’s the second woman that Athena turned into a monster, that Annabeth has encountered.” Piper says. 

“First.” Nico corrects. “She met Medusa first.”

Piper blinks a few times. “Thanks for that.”

**"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, somewhere in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"**

**"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You s** **ee why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."**

“Manipulative, much?” Hazel murmurs, scrunching her nose up. 

**"No," I muttered. I tried to make my legs move...**

**"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."**

“Less pain sounds nice.” Leo admits, stretching backwards. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Frank asks softly. 

**"Percy!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"**

**I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.**

“That’s interesting to picture…” Nico says softly. 

“Are you picturing a flying Coach Hedge?” Reyna asks him. 

Nico winces. “Well, I am  _ now _ .”

**"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"**

**That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail me. I dove to one side.**

Piper snorts, her hand going to her mouth. “Why do I find this so funny?”

“Because we need a good laugh after all of this craziness.” Hazel informs her, her hand holding up her head. 

**Thwack!**

**At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.**

**"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"**

“Baby.” Piper pouts, glaring at the radio as if it were Medusa herself. 

**"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.**

**I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.**

“Get him, Grover!” Frank cheers, his hands waving in the air. 

**Ker-whack!**

**"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.**

**Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Percy!"**

**I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"**

“He really does paint quite the word picture.” Reyna admits, one eyebrow raised high. 

**Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. 'You have to cut her head off."**

Leo either laughs or coughs, his fist pressed to his open mouth. “What a thing to say.”

**"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."**

**"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You—you've got a chance."**

“She makes a point.” Hazel shrugs. 

“Cutting a head off with a dagger isn’t that easy.” Nico agrees. 

Leo stares at the children of the ruler of the underworld. “I don’t even wanna know how you know that.”

**"What? I can't—"**

**"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"**

**She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.**

“This is so sad!” Frank huffs, his arms folding tightly over his chest. 

**Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of—"**

“What is she saying?” Piper asks, her eyes narrowed in confusion. Leo opens his mouth, as if to speak, before shaking his head. 

**"Would you speak English?"**

**"I am!" She tossed me the glass ball. "Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."**

“Thank you!” The girl exclaims, waving her hands around. 

**"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"**

**"Roooaaarrr!"**

**"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.**

“Poor thing.” Frank murmurs. 

Hazel blinks a few times. “How could a person make a noise like that?” She asks herself. 

**"Hurry," Annabeth told me. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash.".**

**I took out my pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand.**

“Go, girl!” Piper says, snapping in a zigzag pattern. 

“Did… did you just refer to a sword as girl?” Reyna asks. 

“I said what I said.”

**I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.**

**I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.**

**Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"**

“If Percy doesn’t cut off the bitch’s head, I will.” Piper threatens, cracking her knuckles. 

**Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, "Hey!"**

**I advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I'd have a hard time defending myself.**

**But she let me approach—twenty feet, ten feet.**

“This feels dangerous.” Franks says slowly. 

“Really? I couldn’t tell.” Nico says sarcastically, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. 

**I could see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn't really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.**

**"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."**

**I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass—the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.**

“Gosh.” Hazel whispers, literally vibrating. 

Nico gently rubs her head, as if to calm her down. 

**From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"**

**Medusa cackled. "Too late."**

**She lunged at me with her talons.**

**I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern—the sound of a monster disintegrating.**

The only sound that went through the car was Piper’s hand slapping over her mouth. Everyone else remained still, as if turning into one of Medusa’s statues. 

**Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.**

**"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."**

Frank swallows thickly. “Are they talking about…”

**Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."**

**Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.**

“Her head.” Piper whispers, shuddering in disgust. “They’re talking about her head.”

**"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling.**

**"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. "Why didn't ... why didn't the head evaporate?"**

**"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."**

“You know…” Hazel says softly. “I might join you in not eating meat, Pipes.” 

**Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.**

“Poor thing.” Frank murmurs, pouting. 

**"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."**

**He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."**

“Hitting her with a stick does sound like a lot of fun.” Hazel says, her eyes bright, just as Jason and Annabeth open their respective doors. 

“Who are you hitting, now?” Jason asks her. 

“No one, cause she’s dead.” Hazel murmurs, passing Reyna’s coffee to the back seat. 

**He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the warehouse.**

**We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.**

“Medusa?” Jason questions, eyes wide. “What did I miss?”

“A lot.” Piper grimaces, gently shaking her head. 

**Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"**

**Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."**

Hazel wrinkles her nose in disgust. Reyna purses her lips to one side. “Medusa was also the mother of Pegasus.”

“And that dude that knocked Jason out.” Frank adds. 

“Which one?” Leo asks. 

**My face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."**

**Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"**

Jason groans, looking at the gas valve. “We’re running low.”

**"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."**

**"You're insufferable."**

**"You're—"**

“I ship it so hard.” Hazel squeals, her fists clenching together. 

**"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"**

**I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!**

Jason was scrolling through his phone, pointedly ignoring the gagging sounds that everybody else was making. 

**I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.**

“I feel this on so many levels.” Leo admits. 

Annabeth crosses her arms over her chest. “Why was he angry at me?”

“Why were you angry at him?” Piper asks. 

“Fair.”

**What had Medusa said?**

**Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.**

**I got up. "I'll be back."**

“He’s not gonna, like, turn himself into a statue is he?” Leo murmurs, eyes wide. 

“Yes, Leo.” Reyna deadpans. “We’ve been friends with a  _ statue  _ for the last year.”

**"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you—"**

**I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden. According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.**

Nico shook his head. “I  _ hate  _ that garden.”

**In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.**

“The right sized box for what…?” Frank asks, though his tone makes it obvious that he already knew. 

**I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:**

“Okay,” Jason sighs. “I think I found the closest gas station.”

**The Gods**

**Mount Olympus**

**600th Floor,**

**Empire StateBuilding**

**New York, NY**

**With best wishes,**

**PERCY JACKSON**

“OH, MY GODS!” The trio in the backseat yell. Even Hazel and Nico stare wide eyed at that. 

**"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."**

“It’s next to some place called…”

**I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!**

“Aunt Em’s Garden Gnome-“

**"I am impertinent," I said.**

“NO!” Everyone screamed. Hazel even wrestled the phone out of Jason’s hand, and looked for another gas station. 

**I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.**

**She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is why I put myself on a deadline. Otherwise I give myself four days, and still don't get it done until the last minute ToT


	13. We Get Advice From A Poodle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it’s been a while, but it’s my birthday, so I wanted to be nice 😌
> 
> Enjoy!

**We were pretty miserable that night.**

“Tell me about it!” Leo calls, his hands waving around.

“Are you okay?” Piper asks him in concern.

The boy grumbles. “I ate too many chips.” Annabeth tosses his water bottle to him.

**We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.**

**We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.**

“Agreed.” Hazel murmurs. “I’m way too tired for anything else right now.”

“And we didn’t even fight.” Nico groans, his head leaning against his sister’s shoulder.

**We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.**

**Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.**

“I don’t snore!” Annabeth says indignantly. “Do I?”

Everyone was silent for a moment. “That depends…” Frank answers slowly. “Which answer would make you less murdery?”

**"Go ahead and sleep," I told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."**

**He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Percy."**

“The fact that this is the second time today that he’s almost died?” Piper guesses.

“That he’s third wheeling an arguing Percabeth?” Leo asks.

“Finding his uncle Ferdinand?” Frank says, his eyes big. He then shakes his head, and murmurs, “Poor uncle Ferdinand.”

**"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"**

**"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."**

“That sucks,” Reyna sighs, grabbing the only blanket left, and draping it over her legs. 

**"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."**

**He glared at me. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast ... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."**

“I agree!” Hazel declares. “Humans suck.”

“They make me sick.” Nico agrees. 

“Damned human race.” Annabeth mutters, shaking her head. 

**"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"**

**"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"**

**A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I'd never known.**

“If that isn’t the most relatable thing I’ve ever heard.” Piper says softly, rolling the apple themed stress toy between her hands. 

**"Tell me about the search," I said.**

**Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.**

“Poor thing.” Frank sighs. “I’ll listen to you!” He promises. 

**"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."**

**"And you want to be a searcher."**

“Does he become one?” Piper asks eagerly, jumping up and down in his seat. 

“What did I say about spoilers?” Hazel huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. 

**"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand ... the statue you saw back there—"**

Frank pouts, looking down sadly. 

**"Oh, right, sorry."**

**Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."**

Leo’s eyes widen. “The first?” He asks, his voice pitching higher. 

**"Hang on—the first?"**

“Now who’s on a wavelength?” Piper giggles, gently bumping his shoulder with hers. 

**Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."**

**"Not once in two thousand years?"**

“That’s disconcerting.” Reyna deadpans, leaning her head against the foggy window, and taking a sip of her coffee. 

**"No."**

**"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"**

**"None."**

“Seriously!” Leo yells. “Depressing!”

“Good thing that no children have to hear this story.” Frank agrees. 

**"But you still want to go," I said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"**

**"I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."**

“Damn. We’re the worst.” Piper sighs. 

Hazel raises an eyebrow. “Speak for yourself. My generation had  _ other  _ issues. But the environment wasn’t one of ‘em.”

“Preach!” Nico agrees, waving his hands in the air. 

**I stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better?**

**"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"**

“Well… he isn’t dead yet. That’s something.” Nico murmurs. 

Frank laughs. “You say that as if every time he meets a god, they try to kill him.”

“Have you ever seen differently?” Annabeth questions. 

Everyone remains silent at that. 

**"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me—"**

**"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."**

Annabeth looks out the window, a her jaw twitching slightly. 

“Well… this is awkward.” Jason says lightly. 

“Way more, now that you say  _ that _ .” Reyna hisses, leaning forward in her chair. 

**"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me...." His voice faltered.**

“For what?” Piper asks, leaning forward. “FOR WHAT?”

Nobody answered her, even as she incessantly taps the head of Annabeth’s chair. 

**"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"**

**Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.**

“He can’t just do that.” Leo insists. “I need to know!”

Piper bites her lip, then places the stress ball in the center of Leo’s palm. 

**"Wait a minute," I said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't ... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong—"**

“Wait a second…” Jason says slowly. 

“What! What!” Piper and Leo yell, leaning towards the blonde boy like a flock of deranged seagulls. 

**"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if I pressed him. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."**

**"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took."**

“Nah, that’s normal.” Reyna waves him off, raising an eyebrow in amusement. 

**"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur—The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at YancyAcademy ... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."**

“That wasn’t aggressive  _ enough _ ?” Frank asks. “A bus  _ exploded _ .”

“Again,” Nico says. “Normal. Especially for that crazy b-word.” He says the ending while looking up at the sky. The sky rumbled in a warning, but nothing else came up. 

**"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."**

**Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"**

**"Asking about me," I said.**

“They did say ‘it’, didn't they…” Leo says slowly, rubbing his chin with one hand and squeezing with the other. 

“Thoughts are being thunk.” Piper agrees, tapping her temple. 

**"Maybe ... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."**

**"That doesn't make sense."**

**"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt...." He looked at me like he was hoping for answers, but I didn't have any.**

“You better soon, bitch! I’m waiting!” Piper yells, jumping in her seat. 

Leo puts a hand on her shoulder. “Calm! Calm down…”

Her lip quivers. “It’s just so hard…”

“I know, I know…” Leo murmurs, bringing her head to his shoulder. 

**I thought about what Medusa had said: I was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of me was worse than petrification. "I haven't been straight with you," 1 told Grover. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother."**

“As he should!” Reyna calls, raising her glass as if in a cheer. “That’s my Queen!”

**Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"**

**"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."**

**Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not as brave as you. But I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."**

Hazel leans her cheek on her knee. “Way to expose us.” 

“He’s trying his best.” Frank defends, crossing his arms over his chest. 

**"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."**

**Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."**

A few people in the group purse their lips together in sympathy. 

Leo clears his throat. “So… can you believe Avengers Infinity War? Like…  _ what??? _ ”

**"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."**

**Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."**

“Sleep sounds nice.” Piper hums, rubbing her cheek against Leo’s shoulder. 

**I wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and I turned away, my eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep.**

**In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.**

Annabeth takes in a small gasp of breath, and Nico winces. 

Hazel gently places an arm around both her friend and brother. 

**They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.**

**Looking down made me dizzy.**

Reyna purses her lips, before literally getting out of her seat, leaning over Frank and Leo, and wrapping Nico into a hug. 

**The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that something was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.**

**The little hero, an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do.**

“What the fuck?” Piper asks softly, bringing her hand to her mouth as she yawns. 

**The voice felt ancient—cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.**

**They have misled you, boy, it said. Barter with me. I will give you what you want.**

Annabeth shudders, pulling her section of the blanket up to her shoulders. Nico puts his head on her shoulder, tightly shutting his eyes. 

**A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: Go!**

**I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.**

Frank was jumping in his seat, eyes incredibly wide. 

Piper put a hand to her neck, almost as if she could feel a phantom hand closing over her own throat. 

**Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.**

**An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.**

**Help me rise, boy. The voice became hungrier. Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!**

“That ain’t Hades!” Leo proclaims, putting his hands up in a ‘preaching’ gesture. 

“Thank you!” Hazel murmurs, though she keeps her voice soft, and eyes firmly on her front seat companions. 

**The spirits of the dead whispered around me, No! Wake!**

**The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me.**

**I realized it wasn't interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself out.**

Jason lightly taps his fingers against the steering wheel. “Reyna, don’t you think that that’s a dangerous place to be?”

“As long as we don’t crash, I’m fine.” She says, not moving from her positions of hugging Nico. 

Jason whistles under his breath, staring at the slick roads. “Yeah… because  _ that’s _ not a possibility.”

**Good, it murmured. Good.**

**Wake! the dead whispered. Wake!**

“Listen!” Leo urges, shaking Piper with the force of his vibrating. 

**Someone was shaking me.**

**My eyes opened, and it was daylight.**

**"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."**

“Good one…” Frank murmurs his voice high pitched and weak. 

Annabeth was just staring out the window, blinking slowly. 

**I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest. "How long was I asleep?"**

**"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."**

“Me?” Piper asks hopefully, gently raising her head, before deciding it was too heavy and dropping it back into Leo’s shoulder. 

**My eyes had trouble focusing.**

**Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.**

**No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.**

“Those exist in real life?” Jason questions, looking into his rear view mirror. 

“Yeah.” Frank says… maybe a little too quickly. 

**The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."**

**I blinked. "Are you ... talking to that thing?"**

“Says the boy that talks telepathically to horses…” Hazel giggles gently, causing Nico to crack a small smile in return. 

**The poodle growled.**

**"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."**

**"You can talk to animals?"**

“Can't we all?” Leo asks. 

“I can’t.” Annabeth murmurs. 

“Me neither.” Piper agrees. 

“Well… excuse  _ me  _ for trying to make conversation!”

**Grover. ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy**

**I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious.**

**"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," I said. "Forget it."**

“What’s his beef with poodles?” Frank sighs, looking down at his feet. 

“You had a pink poodle, didn’t you?” Piper asks him, her eyebrows raised. 

“... Her name was Fifi.”

**"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."**

Leo bites his lip, as if trying to stop himself from letting out a laugh. 

**The poodle growled.**

**I said hello to the poodle.**

“Finally!” Frank cheers, pumping his fists into the air. 

**Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.**

“Aw, even the poodle loved him!” Piper coos, pressing the stress ball down until it was flat on Leo’s palm. 

**"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.**

**"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."**

**"Of course," I said. "Silly me."**

“So… dogs can read…” Hazel says slowly. “That’s good to know.”

**"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."**

Reyna turns to look at Jason, but doesn’t see him. “Wait, where’s Jason?”

**I thought about my dream—the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and my mother's face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West.**

“Pumping gas.” Annabeth answers, pointing at the blonde standing out in the rain. 

“Since when?” Hazel asks. 

**"Not another bus," I said warily.**

The girl shrugs. “A few minutes, now. He’s almost done.” 

**"No," Annabeth agreed.**

“Damn.” Leo whistles. 

**She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I’ve been working on some other projects, that’s why it took me so long. I hope you liked it!
> 
> Also, happy one month!


	14. I Plunge To My Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! I’m back! At a normal time! How about that?
> 
> I’m really excited for this one, and I hope you like it! 
> 
> Read the end notes for a little sneak peek into another story I am currently working on 😊

Jason comes back into the car, just as Percy starts speaking again. He shakes his head, small flecks of water dropping into Hazel’s forehead. 

**We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.**

Leo snorts. Frank just furrows his eyebrows in confusion, pouting his lips outward. 

**We weren't attacked once, but I didn't relax. I felt that we were traveling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.**

“Wonder what that feels like.” Jason muses, looking up at the sky as if waiting for another round of thunder to shake the earth. 

It remains blissfully quiet, as if saying, ‘You aren’t going to get a reaction from me’.

**I tried to keep a low profile because my name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as I got off the Greyhound bus. I had a wild look in my eyes. My sword was a metallic blur in my hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.**

“Oh, my gods! I remember that photo!” Piper says, lifting her head. “My dad’s assistant used to show it to me and say, ‘see? That’s what will happen to you if you continue on this path’.”

Reyna furrows her eyebrows. “That- that is a lot to unpack…”

**The picture's caption read:**

**Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.**

Hazel cracks her knuckles. “I’m going to slap a bitch.” 

Nico turns to her. “Percy’s stepdad, or Piper’s dad’s assistant?”

“Both.” She says, glaring forward.

**"Don't worry," Annabeth told me. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.**

**The rest of the day I spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because I had a really hard time sitting still) or looking out the windows.**

“We can’t walk in the car.” Leo pouts, now pressing his forehead onto Piper’s shoulder. 

“It doesn’t stop you from trying, though!” Jason murmurs, sending a pointed look to Reyna. 

She sticks her tongue out at him. “Haters gonna hate.”

**Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch. The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved. I looked around the passenger car, but nobody else had noticed. The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptop computers or magazines.**

“What’s new?” Annabeth sighs, grabbing a book that she had somehow stored underneath her seat. 

**Another time, toward evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone.**

**Our reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so we dozed in our seats. My neck got stiff. I tried not to drool in my sleep, since Annabeth was sitting right next to me.**

“Aw, he’s already self conscious.” Piper sighs, her hand going to her heart. 

Though her nose was buried in the book, Hazel could’ve sworn she saw the apples of Annabeth’s cheeks redden. 

**Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.**

“Poor babe.” Piper sighs, gently running her hands through Leo’s curls. 

**"So," Annabeth asked me, once we'd gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"**

“Oop.” Frank says, then looks at Piper as if asking ‘is that right?’.

Reyna turns around, and gives him the ‘ok’ sign. 

**I was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time I'd dreamed about the evil voice from the pit. But it bothered me so much I finally told her.**

“Oprah gif!” Leo yells, pumping his left fist into the air. 

Hazel claps. “I am so happy right now, bitch!”

**Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."**

**"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"**

**"I guess ... if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"**

“Because he doesn’t have it!” Nico predicts. 

“Spoilers!” Hazel yells, flailing her arms around and putting a single finger to his lips. 

“You are taking this  _ way  _ too seriously.”

**I shook my head, wishing I knew the answer. I thought about what Grover had told me, that the Furies on the bus seemed to have been looking for something.**

**Where is it? Where?**

“So… Hades isn’t the bad guy?” Frank asks slowly, eyebrows crinkled in confusion. Or concentration. Either could be true. 

“Not this time.” Piper shrugs. 

Nico purses his lips. “Night is still young.”

**Maybe Grover sensed my emotions. He snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head.**

**Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time—"**

“You really  _ get _ our dad.” Hazel says seriously. 

“What did you mean by  _ this time _ ?” Jason asks, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. 

**"This time?" I asked. "You mean you've run into them before?"**

**Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."**

“A picture is forming…” Piper says slowly. 

Leo shudders. “Christmas will never be the same again.”

“Tell me about it.” Jason shudders. 

**"What would you do if it was your dad?"**

**"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot."**

The others stay silent. Nico and Hazel share a look, before their eyes stray to Annabeth. Only the top of her blonde curls peek out from behind her book. 

**"You're not serious?"**

**Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on me. She wore the same expression she'd worn in the woods at camp, the moment she drew her sword against the hellhound. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."**

Piper was worrying at her lip. She cast a glance at Annabeth, who was pointedly ignoring the rest of the passengers. Reyna reaches over the seats, and placed her hand gently on the blonde girl’s shoulder. 

**"But how ... I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital...."**

**"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."**

The car remained blissfully silent. If you were Annabeth. Everyone else interpreted the silence as awkward. 

Either way. Nobody dared utter a word. 

**I stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. I wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but I didn't know how.**

Hazel still didn’t talk. She didn’t draw any attention to herself. But if you were looking at her, you would see the bright, tight lipped smile she gave, and the way that her cheeks reddened. 

**"My mom married a really awful guy," I told her. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."**

**Annabeth kept worrying at her necklace. She was pinching the gold college ring that hung with the beads. It occurred to me that the ring must be her father's. I wondered why she wore it if she hated him so much.**

Leo rubs the backs of his neck, scratching an itch that was just not there. 

He presses the stress ball into a thin line between his calloused hands. 

**"He doesn't care about me," she said. "His wife—my stepmom—treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened—you know, something with monsters—they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."**

**"How old were you?"**

**"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."**

“What the fuck?” Leo let’s out, before putting his hands over his mouth in shock. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Annabeth mumbles, eyebrows furrowed as if she was actually paying attention to the book. She wasn’t, if the fact that she hasn’t turned a page in almost ten minutes was anything to go by. 

**"But ... you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."**

**"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."**

Jason presses his lips into a firm line. “I think I know where this is going.”

Hazel glowers. “What. Did. I. Say. About. Spoilers?”

**I wanted to ask what happened, but Annabeth seemed lost in sad memories. So I listened to the sound of Grover snoring and gazed out the train windows as the dark fields of Ohio raced by.**

**Toward the end of our second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, we passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to me like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city.**

“St. Louis…” Frank says slowly. 

Hazel’s eyes widen in recognition. “Wait…”

**"I want to do that," she sighed.**

**"What?" I asked.**

**"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"**

“Foreshadowing…” Piper says softly. 

“It’s not an actual book.” Leo informs her, eyebrows drawn together. 

“Or so you think.” Reyna murmurs, pointing at the small boy. 

**"Only in pictures."**

**"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."**

**I laughed. "You? An architect?"**

“Oh, Percy…” Frank says softly, wincing. 

“This isn’t going to end well.” Jason predicts. 

**I don't know why, but I found it funny. Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day.**

**Her cheeks flushed. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."**

Piper leans her head against the cold window. “I know this is super uncomfortable to listen to… but the  _ savagery _ . Respect.”

**I watched the churning brown water of the Mississippi below.**

“That’s unappetizing to think of.” Nico murmurs. 

Leo nods in agreement, grabbing a can of pringles, and popping a few into his mouth. 

**"Sorry," Annabeth said. "That was mean."**

**"Can't we work together a little?" I pleaded. "I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?"**

**Annabeth had to think about it. "I guess ... the chariot," she said tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete."**

“They also helped to create Percabeth.” Hazel murmurs. 

“Perca- what now?” Annabeth asks, finally looking away from her book. 

Hazel waves her off. “Like you have no clue.”

**"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?"**

**We rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.**

**"I suppose," she said at last.**

“So... no more uncomfortable moments?” Leo asks hopefully. 

Nico shakes his head. “You know that this is just the beginning to a whole  _ new  _ type of uncomfortable.”

“Oh, shut up.” Annabeth hisses, snapping her book closed. 

**We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.**

**Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."**

“There’s my goat boy!” Frank cheers, lightly clapping. 

**"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."**

“Sightseeing?” Everyone, and I mean everyone (except for Annabeth) asks. 

**"Sightseeing?"**

**"The Gateway Arch," she said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"**

“Don’t go.” Hazel advises, shaking her hair so violently that her curls go flying every which way. 

**Grover and I exchanged looks.**

**I wanted to say no, but I figured that if Annabeth was going, we couldn't very well let her go alone.**

**Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar without monsters."**

“ _ Why would he say that _ ?” Jason groans, nearly banging his head against the steering wheel. 

**The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling us interesting facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing me jelly beans, so I was okay.**

“I  _ knew  _ they were eating!” Annabeth sighs, eyes narrowing. “Why can’t we have one good group moment without them eating?”

**I kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" I murmured to Grover.**

**He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff. "Underground," he said distastefully. "Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."**

“Well,  _ that’s  _ good to know.” Piper mumbles, leaning her head against the side of Leo’s. 

**But something felt wrong to me. I had a feeling we shouldn't be here.**

**"Guys," I said. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"**

“Yes…?” Leo asks slowly, brows furrowed. “Then, he turns to whisper to Piper. “Not really.”

**Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked over. "Yeah?"**

**"Well, Hade—"**

**Grover cleared his throat. "We're in a public place.... You mean, our friend downstairs?"**

“Inconspicuous.” Reyna mumbles. I’m not totally sure if she was sarcastic or not. 

**"Um, right," I said. "Our friend way downstairs. Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"**

**"You mean the Helm of Darkness," Annabeth said. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."**

“Wait, what?” Frank asks, his eyes widening. “Why didn’t we know this?”

“You didn’t ask.” Annabeth answers. “And,  _ frankly _ , Hazel is kind of scaring me.”

“As I  _ should _ .”

**"He was there?" I asked.**

**She nodded. "It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus—the darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true...."**

Nico shudders. “Which it probably is.”

“You’ve seen it?” Jason asks him. 

Nico grinds his teeth, before wincing at the sound. “Once or twice…”

**"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed. "He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"**

**"But then ... how do we know he's not here right now, watching us?" I asked.**

Leo’s head snaps up, but he ends up bumping temples with Piper. They both groan in pain. Thankfully, Frank says what the other boy was thinking. 

“That’s a scary thought.”

**Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks.**

**"We don't," Grover said.**

**"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," I said. "Got any blue jelly beans left?"**

“Jelly beans…” Reyna says in thought, waggling her eyebrows at Annabeth. 

“I will  _ end you _ , Ramírez-Arellano.” The blonde says, but a small smile resets on her lips. 

**I'd almost mastered my jumpy nerves when I saw the tiny little elevator car we were going to ride to the top of the Arch, and I knew I was in trouble. I hate confined places. They make me nuts.**

Nico looks around the packed car. “I’m inclined to agree with him…” He says slowly. 

Hazel shrugs. “It builds memories.”

**We got shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it.**

**We started going up, inside the Arch. I'd never been in an elevator that went in a curve, and my stomach wasn't too happy about it.**

Piper wrinkles her nose, as if she, too, was going up a curved elevator. 

  
  


**"No parents?" the fat lady asked us.**

**She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.**

“Um…” Leo says slowly. “Who else has a bad feeling about this.”

Pretty much everyone raised their hands. 

“Grace!” Annabeth scolds. 

“Sorry.” He mumbles, looking back at the road. It wasn’t his fault that the story had just gotten interesting. 

**"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."**

**"Oh, the poor darlings."**

**The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.**

“Ruh-ro.” Frank says in a truly spectacular impression of Scooby Doo. 

“ _ Please don’t be a family resemblance. Please don’t be a family resemblance. _ ” Piper whispers, crossing her fingers. 

**I said, "Sonny. Is that his name?"**

**"No," the lady told me.**

**She smiled, as if that cleared everything up.**

”Well,  _ that’s _ creepy…” Hazel sighs, leaning back in her seat, arms crossed over her chest. 

At this point in the story, they’d all come to  _ expect  _ something bad to happen. 

**At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay, but if there's anything I like less than a confined space, it's a confined space six hundred feet in the air. I was ready to go pretty quick.**

**Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, and designed a see-through floor. She probably could've stayed up there for hours, but luckily for me the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.**

Annabeth flushes. “That’s not a fair representation.”

“So… you’re saying you would have left if the deck stayed open?” Piper asks her, one eye raised dubiously. 

Annabeth remains silent. 

**I steered Grover and Annabeth toward the exit, loaded them into the elevator, and I was about to get in myself when I realized there were already two other tourists inside. No room for me.**

“Of course there isn’t.” Leo says, his voice completely unsurprised. 

**The park ranger said, "Next car, sir."**

**"We'll get out," Annabeth said. "We'll wait with you."**

**But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so I said, "Naw, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."**

“I’m sure he will.” Frank whispers to himself. 

“What was that?” Reyna questions, turning to face him. 

“Nothing, ma’am!” He says quickly leaning back into his seat. 

“Relax, Frank. I’m not Hazel.”

“I resent that!” Hazel exclaims. “It’s true, but I resent that!”

**Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.**

**Now the only people left on the observation deck were me, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.**

**I smiled uneasily at the fat lady. She smiled back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth.**

Leo chokes on a sip of water that he had just taken. “What?”

“The?” Piper continues. 

“Fluffernutter.” Frank finishes, bring a hand to his mouth. 

**Wait a minute.**

**Forked tongue?**

**Before I could decide if I'd really seen that, her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at me.**

“This is why I hate dogs.” Leo sighs. 

Frank slowly turns to face the younger boy. “Friendship over.” He says deadly serious. 

**"Now, now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."**

**"Doggie!" said the little boy. "Look, a doggie!"**

**His parents pulled him back.**

“Good for those parents!” Hazel exclaims. 

Jason snorts. “Imagine having parents that care about you.”

Everyone stays silent. “Let’s… let’s focus on Percy’s issues right now.” Piper says softly, looking at her lap. 

**The Chihuahua bared his teeth at me, foam dripping from his black lips.**

**"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."**

“Son.” Nico repeats. “Of course it’s her son.”

Piper hangs her head. “Fucking family resemblance.”

**Ice started forming in my stomach. "Urn, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?"**

**"Chimera, dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make.”**

“I-“ Hazel grumbles. “I just- I’m not even gonna-“ she stops talking, and just stares at the radio in indifference. 

**She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, I saw that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were sideways slits, like a reptile's.**

**The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar.**

Reyna rubs at her left eye. “This is giving me  _ so much _ stress.”

**The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monster.**

**The Chimera was now so tall its back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: CHIMERA—RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS—IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS—EXT. 954.**

Leo furrows his brows. “He remembered the exact words on the chimera collar, but  _ didn’t  _ remember what I wanted for my birthday.”

Piper groans. “We all remembered what you asked for, we just didn’t know  _ how  _ to get you a fully functioning infinity gauntlet.”

“Not the  _ gauntlet _ , supplies  _ for  _ the gauntlet!”

“Even if we knew what that was, I’m honestly not sure I trust you with an infinity gauntlet.”

**I realized I hadn't even uncapped my sword. My hands were numb. I was ten feet away from the Chimera's bloody maw, and I knew that as soon as I moved, the creature would lunge.**

**The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, Percy Jackson. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"**

**I stared at her. All I could think to say was: "Isn't that a kind of anteater?"**

Annabeth snorts, her hand going over her nose and mouth. The tips of her ears redden in embarrassment, and she doesn’t make eye contact with anyone. 

**She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Percy Jackson, my son shall destroy you!"**

“What’s new?” Nico asks softly. 

Piper agrees. “I feel like he’s attacked by something new every ten minutes. We get enough of that in real life.”

**The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing. I managed to leap aside and dodge the bite.**

**I ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors.**

**I couldn't let them get hurt. I uncapped my sword, ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, "Hey, Chihuahua!" The Chimera turned faster than I would've thought possible.**

“What’s gonna happen next?” Leo asks Piper and Frank, pulling his share of the blanket firmly up to his shoulders. 

“Probably something bad.” Frank says evasively, his eyes shifting from right to left. 

**Before I could swing my sword, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at me.**

**I dove through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames; the heat was so intense, it nearly seared off my eyebrows.**

“He  _ could not  _ pull off eyebrow-less.” Piper says seriously. “No hate. But he couldn’t.”

**Where I had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.**

**Great, I thought. We just blowtorched a national monument.**

Reyna looks up. “Who’s he calling ‘we’? We’ve been in the car the whole time.”

Nico raises an eyebrow. “You think you’re so funny, don’t you?”

“Oh, I  _ know  _ I am.”

**Riptide was now a shining bronze blade in my hands, and as the Chimera turned, I slashed at its neck.**

“Go for the head!” Leo cheers, raising his fists. 

“Still too soon.” Piper sighs. 

**That was my fatal mistake. The blade sparked harmlessly off the dog collar. I tried to regain my balance, but I was so worried about defending myself against the fiery lion's mouth, I completely forgot about the serpent tail until it whipped around and sank its fangs into my calf.**

**My whole leg was on fire. I tried to jab Riptide into the Chimera's mouth, but the serpent tail wrapped around my ankles and pulled me off balance, and my blade flew out of my hand, spinning out of the hole in the Arch and down toward the Mississippi River.**

“This is almost as stressful as that time he almost drank gorgon blood.” Hazel mumbles, rubbing at her temples. 

“He what?” Annabeth questions, her head whipping towards the young girl. 

Hazel gives a tight lipped smile. “Love you!”

**I managed to get to my feet, but I knew I had lost. I was weaponless. I could feel deadly poison racing up to my chest. I remembered Chiron saying that Anaklusmos would always return to me, but there was no pen in my pocket. Maybe it had fallen too far away. Maybe it only returned when it was in pen form. I didn't know, and I wasn't going to live long enough to figure it out.**

**I backed into the hole in the wall. The Chimera advanced, growling, smoke curling from its lips. The snake lady, Echidna, cackled. "They don't make heroes like they used to, eh, son?"**

“Rude!” Piper and Leo yell at the same time. 

“I am deeply offended.” Frank agrees. 

**The monster growled. It seemed in no hurry to finish me off now that I was beaten.**

**I glanced at the park ranger and the family. The little boy was hiding behind his father's legs. I had to protect these people. I couldn't just ... die. I tried to think, but my whole body was on fire. My head felt dizzy. I had no sword. I was facing a massive, fire-breathing monster and its mother. And I was scared.**

**There was no place else to go, so I stepped to the edge of the hole. Far, far below, the river glittered.**

“Oh, gods. Please tell me this isn’t going to go how I think it is.” Jason pleads. 

“I don’t think I can.” Frank says. “Mostly because I can’t read minds, and have no idea how you think it’s going to go.”

**If I died, would the monsters go away? Would they leave the humans alone?**

**"If you are the son of Poseidon," Echidna hissed, "you would not fear water. Jump, Percy Jackson. Show me that water will not harm you. Jump and retrieve your sword. Prove your bloodline."**

“Well, that’s not fair. Not everyone enjoys their parents’ realm. Thalia is afraid of heights, Hazel hated the underground-“ Nico is cut off. 

“Dude!” His sister groans. 

**Yeah, right, I thought. I'd read somewhere that jumping into water from a couple of stories up was like jumping onto solid asphalt. From here, I'd splatter on impact.**

“I heard that too.” Piper murmurs, playing with the ends of her braids. 

**The Chimera's mouth glowed red, heating up for another blast.**

**"You have no faith," Echidna told me. "You do not trust the gods. I cannot blame you, little coward. Better you die now. The gods are faithless. The poison is in your heart."**

“Why does everybody say this?” Leo asks. 

“I think the better question is, why do they only tell us  _ after  _ we accept the quests.” Nico grumbles. 

**She was right: I was dying. I could feel my breath slowing down. Nobody could save me, not even the gods.**

**I backed up and looked down at the water. I remembered the warm glow of my father's smile when I was a baby. He must have seen me. He must have visited me when I was in my cradle.**

**I remembered the swirling green trident that had appeared above my head the night of capture the flag, when Poseidon had claimed me as his son.**

Frank’s knee bounced up and down, biting his lower lip. 

**But this wasn't the sea. This was the Mississippi, dead center of the USA. There was no Sea God here.**

**"Die, faithless one," Echidna rasped, and the Chimera sent a column of flame toward my face.**

**"Father, help me," I prayed.**

“Help him!” Hazel yells, her shoulders vibrating with her excitement. 

**I turned and jumped. My clothes on fire, poison coursing through my veins, I plummeted toward the river.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sneak Peek at another story I’m working on: 
> 
> PERCY loves his mother. He always will. But when she is at work, and he gets in a bad fight with his stepdad, he hopes that she can forgive him as he packs a few of his possessions in a backpack and doesn’t look back. 
> 
> PIPER has never been the center of her dad’s universe. That doesn’t mean she won’t stop trying. But, she’s tired of getting kicked out of schools, so maybe running away while her dad is filming in NYC is her only option. 
> 
> HAZEL doesn’t remember a lot of her life until six months ago. All she knows is what she was told: that she was an orphan, who was now going to go live with a nice lady in New York. But she can’t handle the forgetful old lady and her demon cats any longer. 
> 
> What happens when they meet, and realize that they have far more in common then the same squat?
> 
> ***
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading!


	15. I Become A Known Fugitive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I’m back. This is a short chapter, like one of the shortest. And, honestly, not a lot happens in it, so I did my best!

”He did  _ not _ just do that.” Piper says, mouth open. 

“Oh, but he  _ did _ .” Annabeth groans, pressing her palms to her eyes. 

**I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera.**

**The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!**

“Fair.” Hazel sighs. 

“It’s really all we should strive for.” Jason agrees. 

**The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.**

**And then: Flaaa-boooom!**

“I always wondered how he found out about the water powers.” Leo muses. “I mean, Hera put me in a fireplace when I was little. But Percy? That was always a mystery.”

Reyna purses her lips. “One day, we’ll work on  _ those  _ problems.”

**A whiteout of bubbles. I sank through the murk, sure that I was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever.**

**But my impact with the water hadn't hurt. I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. A catfish the size of my stepfather lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags—swirled up all around me.**

“Shoes?” Frank asks. 

“Happens more often you’d think.” Nico sighs. At the questioning looks, he just said. “Let’s just say… Thalia got mad at someone. And that person may or may not have been a naiad.”

**At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. I had not been barbecued. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore. I was alive, which was good.**

“Depends…” Leo murmurs. 

Piper blinks a few times. “Dude… what the hell?”

**Second realization: I wasn't wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.**

“That… is odd.” Reyna murmurs. 

“What par-“ Frank starts to say. 

“Just… all of it. It’s odd.”

**I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.**

**No way, I thought.**

“Yeah.” Annabeth agrees. “No way.” 

“Water isn’t wet.” Piper informs. “It makes  _ other  _ things wet.”

**I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.**

“What does that have to do with  _ this _ ?” Leo asks his friend. 

Piper furrows her eyebrows. “Well… it  _ sounded  _ relevant… but now that I’m actually thinking about it… I have no idea.”

**I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry. I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag. Weird.**

**But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally.**

“He thought to light a fire, and  _ breathing  _ was the last thing he noticed?” Hazel asks, her tongue poking out to the side. 

“Probably shock.” Leo observes, waffling his eyebrows in concentration. 

**I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled. I should've been dead. The fact that I wasn't seemed like ... well, a miracle. I imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: Percy, what do you say?**

“Thank you?” Leo and Frank say at the same time. A reflex. 

**"Um ... thanks." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. "Thank you ... Father."**

“He doesn’t sound much older.” Piper muses, eyebrows furrowed. 

Annabeth licks the front of her teeth. “You didn’t know Percy when he was twelve…” she says slowly. 

**No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.**

**Why had Poseidon saved me? The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I felt. So I'd gotten lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, I had never stood a chance. Those poor people in the Arch were probably toast. I couldn't protect them. I was no hero. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders.**

Jason pouts his lip outward. “He’s being  _ really  _ hard on himself. It’s not his fault that he’s a twelve year old being framed for grand theft lightning bolt.”

**Fump-fump-fump. A riverboat's paddlewheel churned above me, swirling the silt around.**

**There, not five feet in front of me, was my sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.**

“A little odd that she didn’t show up before, but go, Riptide!” Piper cheers. 

Nico swallows. “ _ She _ ?”

“Yeah, Riptide is a girl.” Reyna informs. “Everyone knows this.”

“I don’t think everyone does…” Frank says softly. 

**I heard that woman's voice again: Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you. This time, I knew the voice wasn't in my head. I wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.**

“I think that’s a metaphor that only he gets.” Leo murmurs, lips pursed together. 

“Him and people that study the ocean.” Annabeth agrees. “Which I like to leave to the people that  _ aren’t  _ children of the sea god’s enemy.”

**"Where are you?" I called aloud.**

**Then, through the gloom, I saw her—a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.**

“That sounds creepy.” Nico murmurs. 

“You sound creepy.” Reyna retorts. 

“That’s been established. The new thing is that  _ that  _ sounds creepy.”

**A lump formed in my throat. I said, "Mom?"**

**No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.**

“Sally!” Hazel exclaims, raising her arms in the air. 

**"What?"**

**It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.**

“Stupid humans.” Piper huffs under breath. “Selfish bastards.”

**"But ..." I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who—how did you—"**

**There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat.**

**I cannot stay, brave one, the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts....**

“Luke’s gift! Luke’s gift!” Hazel yells. 

“But that’s just one gift.” Jason sighs. 

“But there were two shoes!” She yells. “Gift, and gift.”

**Her voice faded.**

**"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"**

“Luke, Luke, Luke.” Hazel chants, but her voice was lowered like she was heckling, ‘boo’.

“Luke, Luke, Luke.” Frank joins in. 

Piper furrows her eyebrows. “You hate him too, now?”

Frank flushes. “I don’t really have an opinion. I just like chants.”

**She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.**

“And I’m even more depressed than normal.” Reyna groans. She puts a hand out to Leo, and murmurs, “Chip me.”

**I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning.**

“Mood.” Leo sighs, flashing a peace sign. 

“Alright, first thing when we get out of this car, we’re looking for a therapist for you!” Piper exclaims. 

Leo just shrugs. “If you think that’s gonna help.”

**Your father believes in you, she had said.**

**She'd also called me brave ... unless she was talking to the catfish.**

“Stan the catfish.” Annabeth agrees. 

Piper and Leo stare at her. “This must be what it feels like for your mom to try andspeak your language.” The girl whispers. 

**I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snaky, fat mother, waiting to finish me off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions.**

**I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. "Thank you, Father," I said again to the dark water.**

Frank rubs his chin. “But… he can  _ still _ breath and live in water.” He murmurs. 

“Your point?” Reyna asks. 

Frank just shrugs. “I don’t even know anymore.”

**Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.**

**I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's.**

Annabeth stiffens, as if waiting for Leo to say something. Instead, it was Nico that mumbles.

“That actually sounds good.”

“Watch Super Size Me, and it won’t.” The blonde girl promises. 

**A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.**

**A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."**

Leo snorts right into his hand. Piper purses her lips together, a crooked smile forming on her face. 

**"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.**

**"But he's dry!"**

Reyna giggles a little bit, but then looks around her, as if to make sure nobody heard such a weak sound come out of her mouth. 

**"That's nice, dear."**

**A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."**

“Oh my gosh!” Jason sighs. “I actually  _ do  _ remember this! Everyone thought it was some sort of hate crime!”

“Against St. Louis?” Frank asks. 

“Against arches?” Hazel questions. 

**Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth and Grover were okay.**

**I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.**

“No! Run, bitch!” Piper urges. 

Nico turns to face her, and holds out the palm of his hand. “Calm! Down!” She pouts. “Calm…”

**"... an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities ..."**

**I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.**

“You know…” Hazel says softly. “Usually this would make me nervous. But I feel pretty immune to it at this point.”

**I'd almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated, "Perrr-cy!"**

**I turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug—or goat hug. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"**

“He’s back!” Frank cheers. 

“Hell yeah!” Piper enthuses, slapping her hand against Frank’s in a high-five. 

**Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"**

Annabeth shakes her head. “I still can’t leave him alone.”

“That’s what Piper and Jason say about me!” Leo laughs. 

**"I sort of fell."**

**"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"**

A few people snorted. Into their hands, though, so that it didn’t look like they condoned Percy’s odd decisions. 

Odd, because this group of people couldn’t exactly judge anyone else from doing weird things. 

**Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua—"**

“Oh, poor woman.” Reyna groans, tucking her knees under her chin. 

**"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."**

**"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw me. "There he is! That's the boy!"**

“Fuck.” Piper hisses, her fist going to her mouth. 

“Please don’t see them. Please don’t see them.” Frank whispers, crossing his fingers together. 

**I turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd.**

**"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"**

“Chimera!” Nico corrects, wiggling his eyebrows. 

Annabeth purses her lips to the side, and playfully glares at him. 

**I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.**

**"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."**

“If only.” Frank sighs, looking down at the carpeted floor. 

**Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."**

“So, he became a known fugitive.” Leo mutters under his breath. “That would be a wicked chapter name.”

**We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.**

**"First things first," I told Grover. "We've got to get out of town!"**

**Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! I’m trying to keep up with these chapters, especially as I’m working on other things. I hope you enjoyed!


	16. A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is HELLA long! Like, three big things happened in it! That’s why it took me so long 😭 I hope you enjoy! I literally crammed to get it done!

“Alright, so this is  _ happening _ .” Frank murmurs. 

“No.” Leo corrects. “It  _ happened _ . None of this was recorded when it was  _ happening _ .”

“Thanks, Leo. I needed that.” Frank deadpans. 

Leo pats him on the back. “No problem, dude.”

**The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and I was sure that was obvious.**

**"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."**

”I can already tell something bad is going to happen.” Reyna sighs. 

“Obviously.” Piper and Hazel say at the same time, both of their heads resting in their hands. 

**"We can't use phones, right?"**

**"I'm not talking about phones."**

“Yay, Iris messages!” Nico ‘cheers’. No smile appeared on his face, and he was talking in more of a whispered yell than anything else. 

**We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at me, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.**

“He really loves his water metaphors, doesn’t he?” Annabeth murmurs. Apparently, this was a startling discovery, even to her. 

**Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good.**

“Do cops even like doughnuts? Or is that some kind of stereotype?” Frank asks. 

“They do.” Leo and Piper say at the same time,while Frank gives them each a quizzical look. 

“Don’t ask.” They say in synchronization, before looking away from him. 

**"What exactly are we doing?" I asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.**

**"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"**

**"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."**

**I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place.**

“Stealing from you dad’s dead ex girlfriend…” Nico murmurs. “Respect.”

“You scare me sometimes,” Jason murmurs. 

Nico looks offended. “Not  _ always _ ?”

**"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."**

**"What are you talking about?"**

“What  _ did  _ you guys tell him?” Hazel asks. 

“That he needed to go on a quest.” Annabeth says seriously, shrugging her shoulders. 

**He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing."**

**"Instant messaging?"**

“Wow…” Piper says slowly. “Remember when people used to say that instead of  _ text _ ?”

“Nope,” Leo responds, popping the ‘p’.

“Me neither.”

**"Iris-messaging," Annabeth corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."**

**"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"**

“He makes a good point.” Frank admits, gently stroking his chin. Then he realizes what he’s doing with his hand, and shakes his head. “I’ve been spending too much time back here.”

**Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."**

**Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapor and broke into colors.**

“Ooh, that sounds pretty.” Jason coos, a soft smile spreading over his face. Everyone raises an eyebrow at him, and Jason sees it in the rear view mirror. “Right! Like it’s  _ such a crime  _ to like pretty colors!”

**Annabeth held her palm out to me. "Drachma, please."**

**I handed it over.**

**She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering."**

**She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer.**

“He has such a way with words.” Piper murmurs. 

Annabeth’s mouth is slightly agape. “For Valentine’s Day, he gave me a homemade card that said, ‘Happy V-Day, Babe’.”

**"Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.**

**For a moment, nothing happened.**

**Then I was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance. We seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to us at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow.**

“That bitch!” Hazel cries, just as Percy yells,

**"Luke!" I called.**

Hazel glowers, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“You really hate that dude.” Reyna observes. 

“I  _ really do _ .”

**He turned, eyes wide. I could swear he was standing three feet in front of me through a screen of mist, except I could only see the part of him that appeared in the rainbow.**

**"Percy!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"**

“He seems to care.” Frank says softly. 

Annabeth purses her lips together. “Looks can be deceiving.” She says so low, that only Nico can hear her. 

The younger boy wraps one arm around her shoulder. 

**"We're ... uh ... fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. "We thought—Chiron—I mean—"**

Leo purses his lips, pressing a fist to his mouth in order to avoid a sound from escaping his lips. 

Annabeth’s cheeks color, and she glares in a way that makes it obvious that bodily harm would occur to anyone that dared say anything. 

**"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"**

Piper gives a small smile at the mention of the satyr. 

Jason purses his lips together. “The guy seems kind of suspicious.” He admits. 

“ _ Thank you! _ ” Hazel exclaims. 

**"I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"**

**Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.**

“Well, that’s just rude.” Frank murmurs. 

Reyna was moving her shoulders to an imaginary beat. “What  _ kind  _ of hip pop?”

**"Chiron had to—what's that noise?" Luke yelled.**

**"I'll take care of it.'" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight. "Grover, come on!**

Leo can’t hold in his laughter this time. His snort resembles a terrible cough or a honking goose. 

Annabeth is so concerned by the noise, she is firmly distracted from the embarrassment she was feeling only moments ago. “What  _ was  _ that?”

**"What?" Grover said. "But—"**

**"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" she ordered.**

**Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed me the spray gun and followed Annabeth.**

“He makes a point…” Jason says softly. 

“Girls are so weird.” Reyna agrees, a hand going to her chin. 

**I readjusted the hose so I could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.**

**"Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted to me over the music. "Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Word leaked out about the Zeus—Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how—probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound. Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus."**

“Really?” Piper asks. “Ares? I heard he hates Percy.”

“Hey!” Frank says, almost looking offended. Then his face smooths out. “You’re right, though.”

“He does.” Annabeth agrees. 

“With a  _ passion _ .” Hazel murmurs, nodding her head, her curls bouncing around. 

**I shuddered to think that Clarisse's cabin would ever be on my dad's side for anything. In the next stall, I heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.**

“You scare me sometimes.” Nico admits to the blonde girl. 

Annabeth places a hand over her heart. “Thank you! You scare me sometimes, too!”

“You’re so sweet.” Nico pouts. 

**"So what's your status?" Luke asked me. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."**

**I told him pretty much everything, including my dreams. It felt so good to see him, to feel like I was back at camp even for a few minutes, that I didn't realize how long I had talked until the beeper went off on the spray machine, and I realized I only had one more minute before the water shut off.**

“Yeah…” Frank sighs, stretching out. “I know what it’s like to have someone talk for so long.”

“Yeah.” Hazel agrees. “He’ll IM me, and just  _ talk my ear off _ .”

Leo snorts, and Frank’s cheeks redden. “Hazel…”

**"I wish I could be there," Luke told me. "We can't help much from here, I'm afraid, but listen ... it had to be Hades who took the master bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him."**

**"But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly."**

“Luke should know that…” Piper murmurs, her eyebrows furrowing. She gently strokes her chin, lips pursed to one side. 

**"That's true," Luke said, looking troubled. "Still ... Hades has the helm of darkness. How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt? You'd have to be invisible."**

Everyone fell silent at that. Annabeth looked like she had just been slapped. 

**We were both silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said.**

“That…” Annabeth says slowly. 

**"Oh, hey," he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never ... I mean, she's like a little sister to me."**

“Woah!” Jason exclaims, as a car cuts right in front of him last minute. 

“SON OF A-“ Annabeth yells, saying a bunch of curses that were cut off by Jason and a few other drivers honking their horns at the car in front of them. 

Even Reyna looked a little flabbergasted at the stream of curse words that Annabeth was letting fly. 

**I wondered if Annabeth would like that description. In the stall next to us, the music stopped completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed, and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash.**

**"You'd better go see what that was," Luke said. "Listen, are you wearing the flying shoes? I'll feel better if I know they've done you some good."**

“Annab-“ Nico says slowly. 

“I’m fine! I’m  _ fine _ .” She said in a way that let them all know that she was most definitely  _ not  _ fine. 

**"Oh ... uh, yeah!" I tried not to sound like a guilty liar. "Yeah, they've come in handy."**

**"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"**

“I’m going to punch a bitch.” Hazel murmurs. 

“But he’s only in the cd.” Jason says softly. 

The young girl groans. “I didn’t necessarily say that it would be  _ him _ .”

Everyone kind of moves away from her at that. 

**The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate.**

**"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just—"**

This time, Piper’s jaw dropped. “Oh, that bitch did not just-“

“I think he did.” Frank replies, his face going scarily serious. 

**But the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing. I was alone in a wet, empty car wash stall.**

**Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw my face. Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?"**

**"Not much," I lied, my stomach feeling as empty as a Big Three cabin. "Come on, let's find some dinner."**

“Tell them!” Leo encourages. “This stress is killing me! I swear, I’ve gotten grey hairs since this started!”

**A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around us, families were eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas.**

“Mmm…” Reyna says softly. “Burgers…”

Annabeth, now slumped against her cold window, sighs. “Yeah… I could eat.”

The back seat share wide eyed looks, and they all reach for the stress ball at the same time. 

**Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Well?"**

**I said, "We, um, want to order dinner."**

**"You kids have money to pay for it?"**

“Nope.” Everyone says at the same time. 

Nico raises his chin, head tilting to the side. “Wait… where were  _ we  _ getting our money from?”

Everybody remains silent, their minds whirring for answers that I have not thought of ahead of time. 

**Grover's lower lip quivered. I was afraid he would start bleating, or worse, start eating the linoleum. Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger.**

**I was trying to think up a sob story for the waitress when a rumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the curb.**

Frank’s face pales. “Oh,  _ gods _ , no.”

“What” Leo asks. 

**All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather—but leather that looked like ... well, Caucasian human skin.**

Piper scrunches her face up, looking a little green. “What?”

Frank groans, his head going into his hands. “Please no.  _ Please  _ no.”

**The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for Mama. He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face I'd ever seen— handsome, I guess, but wicked—with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. The weird thing was, I felt like I'd seen his face somewhere before.**

“Is that…” Hazel says slowly. 

“ _ Dad _ …” Frank grumbles, slumping against Leo’s side. 

**As he walked into the diner, a hot, dry wind blew through the place. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotized, but the biker waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again. Everybody went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?"**

**The biker said, "It's on me." He slid into our booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window.**

Current day Annabeth wrinkles her nose, as if she were still pressed against the window next to some big, burly god. 

Which… was kind of close, seeing as how she  _ was  _ pressed against a window, on a bench crammed with three other people. I gue it actually isn’t that far off. 

**He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, "Are you still here?"**

“But… they didn’t order…” Leo says slowly. “WHY DIDN’T THEY ORDER!?”

“I don’t know, Leo!” Frank says slowly. “Now, please stop punching my chest.”

**He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen.**

**The biker looked at me. I couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in my stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness. I wanted to hit a wall. I wanted to pick a fight with somebody. Who did this guy think he was?**

“Don’t do something stu-“ Jason says, before stopping himself. “Don’t do something  _ smart _ .”

“Good one.” Piper deadpans. 

**He gave me a wicked grin. "So you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?"**

**I should've been surprised, or scared, but instead I felt like I was looking at my stepdad, Gabe. I wanted to rip this guy's head off. "What's it to you?"**

“I also want to rip Gabe’s head off.” Hazel agrees. 

Reyna raises an eyebrow. “I got you.” She then raises her fist, and Hazel bumps it with her own. 

**Annabeth's eyes flashed me a warning. "Percy, this is—"**

**The biker raised his hand.**

**"S'okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"**

“Still super creepy.” Nico whispers. 

“Yeah, I don’t wanna remember just how closely all of us are technically related.” Leo agrees, wrinkling his nose. 

**Then it struck me why this guy looked familiar. He had the same vicious sneer as some of the kids at CampHalf-Blood, the ones from cabin five.**

**"You're Clarisse's dad," I said. "Ares, god of war."**

“Why did it have to be  _ my  _ dad? Why couldn’t it have been  _ some other  _ god that wants to kill Percy?” Frank asks. 

“How’d you know that he wants to kill Percy?” Annabeth asks softly. 

Frank gives her a serious look. “It’s Percy. And my dad. Even when they didn’t remember why they hated each other, they hated each other.”

**Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "That's right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."**

**"She was asking for it."**

**"Probably. That's cool. I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? What I'm here for—I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you."**

“Uh oh.” Jason sighs. 

“Hear him out!” Piper exclaims. “Maybe the gods are legitimately trying to help for non selfish reasons!”

**The waitress came back with heaping trays of food—cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes.**

Everyone burst into laughter. 

“The gods!” Leo yells. “Non selfish!”

“I know!” Piper giggles. “I could barely get through it with a straight face!”

Jason shakes his head, his sides aching. “Stop it! I have to drive!”

**Ares handed her a few gold drachmas.**

**She looked nervously at the coins. "But, these aren't..."**

**Ares pulled out his huge knife and started cleaning his fingernails. "Problem, sweetheart?"**

**The waitress swallowed, then left with the gold.**

Nico takes a calming breath, placing his hands on his heaving belly. “Not a bad deal, not gonna lie.”

Annabeth and Reyna nod, but everyone else is still trying to contain their fits of laughter. 

**"You can't do that," I told Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."**

**Ares laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don't you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favor."**

“What a testament to our country that it’s the god of war’s favorite place.” Hazel murmurs, playing with her fingers. 

“Speak for yourself!” Frank yawns, lounging backwards. “I’m technically an immigrant.”

**"What favor could I do for a god?"**

**"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little ... date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."**

Piper makes a face when Ares mentioned his ‘girlfriend’. “Oh… please don’t mean…”

Leo looks between his two friends. “Now I feel left out.”

**"Why don't you go back and get it yourself?"**

**The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter.**

“Don’t piss off the  _ god _ .” Reyna groans, pinching the bridge of her nose. “They’re vindictive.”

**"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."**

**I wanted to punch this guy, but somehow, I knew he was waiting for that. Ares's power was causing my anger. He'd love it if I attacked. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.**

“Why doesn’t he think that way  _ all  _ the time?” Nico asks. 

Annabeth just shrugs, mouthing ‘I don’t know’, her eyes closing. Whether it was from the rehashing of memories or annoyance is up to you. 

**"We're not interested," I said. "We've already got a quest."**

**Ares's fiery eyes made me see things I didn't want to see—blood and smoke and corpses on the battlefield. "I know all about your quest, punk. When that item was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and me, naturally. If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful ..." He licked his lips, as if the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry. "Well ... if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."**

“That is a lot of information to receive.” Leo murmurs, placing his hands on his temples. “And the voice that Percy is using his giving me a headache. 

It was true. Little Percy had moved his voice to such a low tone it was almost a hoarse whisper. He would sometimes let out a little cough that sounded like rocks clanging together. He really got into character. 

**"You told him Hades stole the bolt?"**

**"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest."**

“Wait!” Piper exclaims, her eyes wide. “But couldn’t he have done the  _ same thing  _ to-“

“McLean!” Hazel reprimands. 

Piper huff, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t want you to know my theory, anyway.”

**"Thanks," I grumbled.**

**"Hey, I'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends."**

Annabeth pinches her face together at the mention of this ‘ride west’.

**"We're doing fine on our own."**

**"Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against. Help me out, and maybe I'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom."**

“Sally?” Reyna gasps, pushing herself up with Nico’s tiny shoulders. 

“Oof! Cut those fingernails!

“Build those muscles!”

**"My mom?"**

**He grinned. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."**

Frank makes a face. “Tunnel of Love?”

“I would not want to hear that about my parent.” Leo laughs. He then lightly nudges Piper. “Right, Pipes?” She doesn’t say anything, her own face looking a little nauseous. “Right…?”

**"What interrupted your date?" I asked. "Something scare you off?"**

**Ares bared his teeth, but I'd seen his threatening look before on Clarisse. There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous.**

**"You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am. I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me."**

Jason snorts when Ares says that the other olympians weren’t as forgiving as him. He may have never truly met the others besides his dad, but he knew that there were others better than him. 

Apollo may be annoying, but he never threatened to turn anyone into an animal. Not in this decade, anyway. 

**After that I must have fainted, or fallen into a trance, because when I opened my eyes again, Ares was gone. I might've thought the conversation had been a dream, but Annabeth and Grover's expressions told me otherwise.**

**"Not good," Grover said. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good."**

“When is anything  _ ever _ good?” Hazel asks softly, leaning her head onto Nico’s shoulder. 

“At the end of the movie.” He replies, straightening out one of her curls, and watching it spring back to life. 

**I stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared.**

**Did Ares really know something about my mom, or was he just playing with me? Now that he was gone, all the anger had drained out of me. I realized Ares must love to mess with people's emotions. That was his power—cranking up the passions so badly, they clouded your ability to think.**

“What is… pretty much every one of our lovely parents.” Leo sighs, placing one finger to his temple, and twisting it around. 

**"It's probably some kind of trick," I said. "Forget Ares. Let's just go."**

**"We can't," Annabeth said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."**

“I’d actually kind of want to see that.” Reyna admits, running her fingers through her dark tresses, and scratching at her scalp. 

**I looked down at my cheeseburger, which suddenly didn't seem so appetizing. "Why does he need us?"**

**"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth said. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."**

**"But this water park ... he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"**

“A god of peace?” Piper asks. 

“A god of happiness?” Leo speculates. 

“Child support?” Frank questions. 

**Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other.**

**Annabeth said, "I'm afraid we'll have to find out."**

“Why do we always have to find out?” Leo groans, moving his head from Frank’s shoulder to Piper’s, and back again. 

**The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.**

“Hmm…” Piper says softly. “I would have only knocked out the R, and spray painted an S between the A and T.”

“Okay, thug life.” Annabeth murmurs, reaching back to pat Piper on the spot were her wrist connected with the rest of her arm. 

**The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.**

**"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," I said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."**

Nico snorts, despite his best efforts. A flash of lightning, almost pink looking in the light. “Sorry, ma’am.” He says, though his words sounded fake. 

**"Percy," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."**

**"Why? I thought you hated Ares."**

**"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."**

Nico and Hazel raise an eyebrow at the blonde girl. Annabeth simply tilts her head. “I stand by it.”

**"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added.**

**"Who is she? Echidna?"**

**"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."**

“No!” Piper pouts. “Not Grover too!”

Leo looks a little put out. “Why didn’t I know that your parents are dating?”

Piper and Frank both open their mouths to talk, before scrunching their faces in awkwardness, and turning away from each other. 

**"I thought she was married to somebody," I said. "Hephaestus."**

**"What's your point?" he asked.**

Everyone awkwardly shifts their eyes. To be fair, most of them had parents that were married to someone else. 

Leo finally bites his lip. “Does that mean that Piper and me are step siblings?” 

**"Oh." I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?"**

**"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings.**

**He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"**

“Well… that’s  _ one way  _ to do it.” Hazel declares, gently bobbing her head up and down. 

**Annabeth and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.**

Jason raises an eyebrow at the girl next to him. “No ‘aww’?” 

Hazel shakes her head. “I just spoke last paragraph. Don’t want it to look like I’m speaking  _ too much _ .”

**The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was AnkleBiterIsland, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?**

**No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise.**

“I’m scared.” Leo murmurs, burrowing closer to his friends. “This is almost as terrifying as Nico.”

“Hey!” Nico yells. “Wait…  _ almost _ … thanks!”

**We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of—**

**"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes."**

“Non wet, not smelling of cheese dust and spilled soda clothes…” Jason murmurs in awe, his eyes growing big. 

**"Yeah," I said. "But you can't just—"**

**"Watch me."**

“Oop!” Piper coos, her lips pursing together, but the corners of her mouth pulling upwards. “You  _ go  _ girl!”

Annabeth just shakes her head, gently smiling. 

**She snatched an entire row of stuff off the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.**

“Damn!” Leo whistles. “Way to steal from that abandoned booty call hangout!”

“Please! I am  _ begging  _ you. Do  _ not  _ describe it like that!” Frank groans. 

**"What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.**

**We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," I said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"**

Piper and Frank wince. Actually, everyone winces. It’s a  _ really  _ uncomfortable topic. Nobody wants to hear about their parent’s relationship status. 

**"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth told me. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."**

**"What about Aphrodite's husband?"**

“I’m kind of wondering the same thing.” Hazel admits, rubbing a hand over the worn denim over her knee. 

Annabeth shrugs, gesturing towards Leo. “He obviously survives.”

**"Well, you know," she said. "Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off MountOlympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"**

Piper opens her mouth, raising a finger. She just blinks at Annabeth a few times. 

The blonde girl presses her hands to her face, her skin going very red. 

**"She likes bikers."**

“Not exclusively!” Piper clarifies, just as Percy (acting as little Annabeth) says,

**"Whatever."**

**"Hephaestus knows?"**

**"Oh sure," Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like ..."**

“Abandoned water parks.” Jason and Reyna murmur at the same time. 

“Jinx!” 

Then Reyna glares at the boy, “ _ No _ , bitch!  _ You’re _ jinxed!”

**She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."**

**In front of us was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.**

“Wait! He skates?” Nico asks genuinely. 

“All the time.” Annabeth sighs. “Without a helmet.”

**Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!**

“But… it literally  _ is  _ my mom’s tunnel of love.” Piper groans. 

“I’m  _ never  _ going into there.” Frank agrees, shuddering. 

**Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look."**

**Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.**

**"This is too easy," I said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"**

“It  _ is  _ too easy.” Hazel whispers, shaking her legs. “Don’t do it, dude.”

Leo shakes his head. “He won’t listen. He  _ never listens _ !”

“He’s… a recording.” Jason says slowly, his eyes narrowing in confusion. 

“Have you ever heard of  _ dramatic effect _ ?”

**Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.**

**"There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder ..."**

“But… isn’t that…?” Piper says slowly. 

Annabeth shakes her head. “Don’t remind me…”

**"Grover," I said, "you smell any monsters?"**

**He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."**

**"Nothing—like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"**

“Oof! Cheap shot!” Leo murmurs, scrunching his face up. 

Frank shakes his head. “If I didn’t love Percy now, I would beat little him up. Not really, because that’s rude and I don’t know what he’s been through. But,  _ figuratively  _ beat him up.”

**Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."**

**"Okay, I'm sorry." I took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."**

“I think  _ we’re all  _ a little short tempered right now!” Reyna yells, causing everyone to go silent. “So, now that I’ve grabbed your attention… do you guys know anyone that you can set me up with? I want a girlfriend!”

**"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.**

**"No," I told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."**

**Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"**

“No! The second someone says that,  _ something bad happens _ !” Piper groans, slapping a hand against her forehead. 

**"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me—"**

Hazel let out a high pitched squeal, before putting her hands over her mouth. A very obvious smile lit up her face, even with her mouth being currently covered. 

**"Are you kidding?" She looked at me as if I'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.**

**"What's the problem now?" I demanded.**

**"Me, go with you to the ... the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"**

Nico turns to the Annabeth sitting right next to him, and gives her the ‘ok’ sign. “Way to know your priorities, Chase.”

**"Who's going to see you?" But my face was burning now, too. Leave it to a girl to make everything complicated. "Fine," I told her. "I'll do it myself." But when I started down the side of the pool, she followed me, muttering about how boys always messed things up.**

Reyna shakes her head. “This is a mess of prepubescent hormones and emotions.”

“I  _ do not  _ miss that age.” Piper murmurs.  __

“Thanks for that…” Hazel says softly, rolling her eyes. 

**We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride. Why? Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.**

Leo laughs so hard, that a hiccup bubbles up from his throat. He looked up at the roof of the car. “No offense… but that was  _ too good _ !”

**I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable—rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. I smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against my cheek when Annabeth ripped it out of my hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."**

“Boys.” Every girl in the car, and Nico say at the same time. 

**"What?"**

**"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."**

**The moment I touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble. My hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb, I thought, but then I looked at a strand of it on my palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.**

“Uh oh.” Leo whispers. 

“You can say that again.” Frank whispers. 

“Okay.” Leo shrugs. “Uh oh.”

**"Wait," Annabeth said.**

**"Too late."**

**"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."**

“What is Eta?” Jason asks, squinting through the incoming darkness and blur of rain. 

“H.” Annabeth and Piper tell him. 

Leo looks up, his eyes as wide as an owl. “Who?” He hoots. 

**Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.**

**Grover yelled, "Guys!"**

**Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.**

“Why do we never learn from our past mistakes?” Frank questions. 

“Because then the story would be much shorter.” Nico informs the older boy. 

**"We have to get out," I said.**

**"Duh!" Annabeth said.**

Percy’s voice now took the form of a typical California girl. His girlfriend glared at the radio like it had personally offended her. 

**I grabbed the shield and we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.**

**"Come on!" Grover shouted.**

**He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.**

“Dammit, Mom! Why do you have to be such an adulterer!” Piper yells, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. 

**The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight ..."**

Nico giggled. Like,  _ legitimately  _ giggled. Everyone wondered what could’ve elicited that response from him. 

Only Jason suspected that he was imagining the actual Cupid’s head popping open.

**"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid.' Eta is H.' He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"**

**We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... things poured out.**

“Wait… does he mean…  _ things _ ?” Leo asks, his eyes round with horror. 

Piper and Frank both slap their hands onto their foreheads. 

**Annabeth screamed.**

**It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.**

“Spiders?” Hazel asks. 

Annabeth shudders, her eyes snapping shut. 

**"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp—sp—aaaah!"**

**I'd never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before I pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat.**

“You okay?” Reyna asks softly, placing a hand on the slightly pale Annabeth’s shoulder. 

She flinched at the touch, before sagging in relief when she saw that it was just Reyna. “Fine.” Annabeth whispers, a little breathlessly. 

**The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral us and bite us and make us look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods.**

**Annabeth and I climbed into the boat. I started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.**

Annabeth blinks a few times, turning her head to stare out the window. “Hey! There’s an Olive Garden at the next exit.”

Jason follows her gaze. “On it.”

**"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.**

**The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.**

“Not the surf shoe!” Hazel groans mockingly, shaking her head so violently that her hair hit Nico in the face. 

Her brother opens his mouth, staring at the slightly damp piece of hair that had just escaped from it.

**Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.**

**Think, I told myself. Think.**

**The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.**

Jason looks at the road map. “There’s also a McDonald’s and Starbucks along with the Olive Garden. If you guys want something from there instead.”

**"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.**

**Water, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?**

“I don’t  _ want  _ to know the answer to that question.” Piper whispers, shaking her head. “Also, Olive Garden sounds great.”

**Then I saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from. And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station.**

**"Grover!" I yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"**

Nico wrinkles his nose. “It isn’t  _ the best  _ Italian food. But it is pretty good. Let’s get some Olive Garden!”

**"But—"**

**"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off. I had to get us out of there.**

Reyna leans forward, her nails just barely scratching the back of Jason’s neck. “Olive Garden is fine, but can we get Starbucks after? I’m craving some matcha…”

“Ooh! Green tea!” Frank coos, his eyes soft. 

**Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.**

**"Five, four—"**

**Grover looked up at me hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting me know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.**

“Relatable.” Leo groans, narrowing his eyes. “ _ Buttons suck _ .”

**I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. I tried to imagine that I was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.**

“Um…” Piper murmurs. “He can’t  _ actually  _ do that? Can he?”

“I don’t  _ think  _ so.” Leo murmurs. 

“I’m pretty sure we would have heard of the ocean going to some abandoned Denver water park.” Annabeth whispers, raising her eyebrows. 

**"Two, one, zero!"**

**Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.**

The rain started to lighten as Jason pulled off of the exit, and into a large rest stop parking lot. Across the street was an Olive Garden, a Starbucks, and a McDonald’s, all in separate blocks. 

**The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.**

**Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.**

“How fun…” Jason murmurs, turning his head to look at his friend. They could all hear a crack as he moved for the first time in what felt like forever. 

**But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was my imagination, but the boat seemed to respond. At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.**

**Annabeth and I held tight, both of us screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff.**

Leo and Frank lean their head back while Piper lightly sings under her breath, “That you were Romeo, you were throwin’ pebbles, and my daddy said ‘stay away from Juliet’...”

**Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.**

**If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade—one submerged, the other cracked in half.**

“So… Olive Garden?” Annabeth asks the car, clapping her hands together. She only got half of their attention, most of the other half was on Percy’s story. 

“I could eat.” Hazel agrees. 

**"Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to Annabeth.**

**"Are you crazy?"**

“Me too!” Leo agrees. “There’s no more food back here!”

“We bought 9 bags of chips.” Reyna says, flabbergasted. 

**"Unless you want to get smashed to death." I strapped Ares's shield to my arm. "We're going to have to jump for it." My idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. I'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, we would land in the pool.**

“ _ Someone  _ ate all of it!” Leo informs her. 

“ _ You  _ ate all of it.” Piper says, her face and expression deadpan. 

“Yeah, that’s why I said ‘someone’.”

**Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped my hand as the gates got closer.**

**"On my mark," I said.**

**"No! On my mark!"**

Hazel smiles softly, giggling a little bit at the fight. 

**"What?"**

**"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle—"**

**"Fine.'" I shouted. "On your mark!"**

Nico taps his temple three times. “As you should, girl!”

**She hesitated ... hesitated ... then yelled, "Now!"**

**Crack!**

**Annabeth was right. If we'd jumped when I thought we should've, we would've crashed into the gates. She got us maximum lift.**

Annabeth turns to the windows, but her reflection in the foggy glass revealed a small smirk lifting up one corner of her mouth. 

**Unfortunately, that was a little more than we needed. Our boat smashed into the pileup and we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.**

**Something grabbed me from behind.**

“Kindly ones?“

“Harpies?” 

“Hermes?” 

_ “Big Bird _ ?”

Piper and Leo respectively shouted out their guesses to the quiet car. 

**Annabeth yelled, "Ouch!"**

**Grover!**

**In midair, he had grabbed me by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and I had all the momentum.**

“Grover…” Frank says slowly.

Piper looked at Leo. “ _ Grover!  _ We thought of  _ Hermes _ , before we thought of Grover with the flying shoes!”

“What about Big Bird?” Jason asks them. 

Leo raises a dubious eyebrow. “What seems more likely? The gods helping us out, or Big Bird!”

It was really no competition. 

**"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"**

**We spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.**

**We smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Annabeth and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on my arm.**

Everyone laughed a little bit. How could you not? Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale, plus Grover? An  _ iconic  _ duo.

**Once we caught our breath, Annabeth and I got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates.**

**A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.**

**"Show's over!" I yelled. "Thank you! Good night!"**

Nico snorts. “Like  _ that’ll  _ stop them from watching.”

**The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good.**

Jason put his hands on the key sticking out of the ignition. “As soon as this is over, we’ll head over to the restaurant.” He tells everyone. 

**I hated being teased. I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me. I hefted the shield on my arm and turned to my friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyways, enjoy! Hopefully the next chapter will come sooner! 
> 
> Also, would you guys be interested if I made these audiobooks as well? Like if that would make things easier? Lmk!


	17. We Take A Zebra To Vegas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FINALLY FINISHED! You guys have no idea how many times I just wanted to make this a two parter just to get it out there 😭
> 
> Funny story, I actually wrote the beginning and end of this while on a road trip. Not as long or fun as this one, but... you take what you can get!

About an hour later, they all shuffle back into the car, far happier and less hungry than before. 

Reyna finally retakes her seat, but still stares longingly at her dangerous spot on the ground. 

Hazel wiggles a little bit in her seat. “Back to the story!”

“Okay!” Leo groans, laying backwards, and patting his stomach. “I’m ready!”

**The war god was waiting for us in the diner parking lot.**

“Oh, great.” Frank groans. “I almost forgot.”

Leo whispers to Piper, “It sounds like he  _ did  _ forget…”

“Shut up.” The older boy hisses, although looking far happier than he did a moment ago. 

**"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."**

**"You knew it was a trap," I said.**

**Ares gave me a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."**

Hazel looks pleadingly at Nico. “Can I punch-“

“No.”

“Just  _ one _ -“

“No.”

The girl crosses her arms over her chest, and huffs, “You’re no fun.”

**I shoved his shield at him. "You're a jerk."**

**Annabeth and Grover caught their breath.**

Jason’s breath also caught in his throat. “How is he still alive?”

“You’re just  _ now  _ asking that?” Reyna asks him, one eyebrow raised pointedly. 

**Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.**

**"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."**

“Fun.” Piper murmurs. 

Hazel sees Nico’s eyes widen for a second, before his face melts back into a carefully measured expression. 

**The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.**

Frank sits up, “Wait! I heard about that in the news…”

Leo snorts. “Nerd. Who cares about the news?”

**I said, "You're kidding."**

“I heard about it too..” Piper says, her eyebrows furrowing. 

“Good for you, Pipes.” Leo says, patting her shoulder. Frank looks at Leo offendedly. “Yeah. That’s right. I play favorites.”

**Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."**

Piper just shook her head. “Wasn’t this animal…”

“Smuggling.” Annabeth hisses, glaring out the window. 

“Animal what now?” Reyna asks, her eyes blazing in a way that made everyone know that they should stay out of her way. 

**He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to me.**

**Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos.**

Leo groans. “In way too full for him to be talking about food.”

“You can get full?” Jason asks genuinely. 

**I said, "I don't want your lousy—"**

**"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, giving me his best red-alert warning look. "Thanks a lot."**

“Good for Grover.” Frank murmurs. “It takes a special person to keep their friend from being killed by a god.”

“Piper.” Leo and Jason say. 

“Reyna.” Nico sighs. 

“The bitches I try to take my anger out on  _ before _ I meet someone that I can’t take on.” Hazel murmurs, nodding her head. 

**I gritted my teeth. It was probably a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but I didn't want anything that Ares had touched. Reluctantly, I slung the backpack over my shoulder. I knew my anger was being caused by the war god's presence, but I was still itching to punch him in the nose. He reminded me of every bully I'd ever faced: Nancy Bobofit, Clarisse, Smelly Gabe, sarcastic teachers—every jerk who'd called me stupid in school or laughed at me when I'd gotten expelled.**

Everybody looks down. Each of them could relate to that in a way. There was always someone that doubted them or made their lives harder. 

**I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us.**

“Oh, fuck.” Piper whispers, her hand going to her mouth. “What do you think is going to happen?”

“Well, seeing as how everything has been recently, people will probably assume that  _ he’s  _ trying to kidnap Ares.” Reyna predicts, running her hands over her soft blanket. 

**Great, I thought. We'll make the papers again tomorrow.**

**I imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENSELESS BIKER.**

“Well… you guys were  _ sort of  _ on the same track.” Leo mumbles, his head falling onto Frank’s shoulder. 

“I’m kind of glad we didn’t have the same thought.” Reyna admits. 

**"You owe me one more thing," I told Ares, trying to keep my voice level. "You promised me information about my mother."**

**"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead.**

“Yes!” Jason enthuses. 

“I mean… we kind of already knew that.” Nico says, looking straight at Jason. 

Jason just looks back at him. “Why do you guys hate me?”

Hazel gently rubs Jason’s arm, whispering, “It’s okay…”

**The ground seemed to spin beneath me. "What do you mean?"**

**"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."**

The car screeches to a halt as they enter the drive thru line for Starbucks. It was practically spilling out into the street, and was still growing bigger. 

Reyna perks up, and smiles at Jason in the rear view mirror. “Love you!”

“You better.” He grumbles. 

**"Kept. Why?"**

**"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."**

**"Nobody's controlling me."**

“Oh, poor, naive, kid.” Leo coos, placing a hand over his heart. 

“I wish I was still like that.” Piper agrees. “Would make life easier.”

**He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."**

**I balled up my fists. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."**

Frank laughs, but poorly disguises it as a cough. “That’s… that’s not funny…” he says softly, but he couldn’t quite wipe the small smile off of his face. 

**Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. I felt a hot wind in my hair. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."**

**He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street.**

**Annabeth said, "That was not smart, Percy."**

Hazel shakes her head. “He doesn’t care.”

**"I don't care."**

The youngest passenger raises her arms in the air. “I got one!”

“It’s not a competition.” Leo murmurs. 

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Piper says. “It is… and  _ I’m _ in the lead.”

Frank sighs. “And it’s starting…”

**"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that god."**

“Too late for that.” Nico sighs, as an argument between the backseat, minus Frank and plus Hazel, erupts. 

“Yeah…” Annabeth agrees, leaning her head on top of Nico’s. 

**"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but ..."**

**He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.**

**"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."**

“I bet he hates zoos.” Jason says, idly drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. The car was semi permanently in park, as the line for Starbucks refused to move. 

**I didn't like it, but we had no better option. Besides, I'd seen enough of Denver.**

“A diner, and an abandoned water park… who is he? Scooby Doo?” Frank asks. 

Leo pulls himself out of the argument with some of the most competitive people he’s ever met (except for Annabeth, who was too tired and uninterested to care about their ‘competition’), and furrows his eyebrows at Frank. “Outdated reference, but you tried.”

**We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us.**

Piper stiffens her spine. “Wait… are you saying you don’t like Scooby Doo?”

Leo shrugs. “No… it’s just old…”

And thus started  _ yet another  _ argument. Yes. We’ve reached that part in the story. 

**The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter.**

**The trailer was dark inside until I uncapped Anaklusmos. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals I'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing I didn't know the name for.**

“Stop fighting, or I’ll turn this car around!” Jason yells, but there was no need. They had all kept at least one ear on the story, and they all stopped taking when the description of the animals came up. 

**Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!**

“What the fuck?” Five pairs of voices ask at the same time. 

Hazel’s eyes widen, and she turns to her brother. “Nico?”

“I was really shocked…” he says softly, but he kept touching his mouth like it had held something disgusting. 

**Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.**

Leo swallows thickly, blinking furiously. “I love you guys.”

“Love you too.” Everyone else says, and the whole back seat bring each other in to hugs. 

Hazel grand Nico and Annabeth into her own bone crushing embrace. 

Jason was driving forward, as another car had given up on the never ending line. 

**"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"**

**He probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and I would've helped him, but just then the trucks engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down.**

“I wanna beat them up.” Frank says slowly. 

Leo nods, rubbing his head against the soft material of Frank’s shirt. “Yeah. You beat up the two grown men. And I’ll be your alibi.”

**We huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. Annabeth was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but I pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, I had a feeling we might look a lot better to the lion than those turnips.**

“Now that’s just stereotypical.” Reyna murmurs, lightly shaking her head. 

**I found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then used Anaklusmos to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. I gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.**

**Grover calmed the antelope down, while Annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon off his horn. She wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but we decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. We told Grover to promise the animals we'd help them more in the morning, then we settled in for night.**

“This  _ hurts  _ to listen to.” Hazel whispers. “I can’t believe someone would do that to those animals. It’s so inhumane.”

“Really?” Annabeth asks her. “Cause it sounds pretty on track for humans.”

“Well, humans are inhumane.” 

**Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened our bag of Double Stuf Oreos and nibbled on one halfheartedly; I tried to cheer myself up by concentrating on the fact that we were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to our destination. It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty-first. We could make it in plenty of time.**

**On the other hand, I had no idea what to expect next. The gods kept toying with me. At least Hephaestus had the decency to be honest about it—he'd put up cameras and advertised me as entertainment. But even when the cameras weren't rolling, I had a feeling my quest was being watched. I was a source of amusement for the gods.**

“Aren’t we all?” Piper questions. Then she motions with her head to Nico. “Well… maybe not you…”

Nico snorts. “Are you kidding? I’m a gay, goth, orphan. I might not be very entertaining to the rest of you, but to the gods, I’m like general hospital.”

**"Hey," Annabeth said, "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Percy."**

**"That's okay."**

**"It's just..." She shuddered. "Spiders."**

“No need to explain.” Frank tells Annabeth, putting his hand out flat. 

“You’re scared of spiders?” Leo asks him. 

“No…” Frank says softly. “Unicorns.”

The bark of laughter that escapes the smaller boy rings throughout the whole car. “ _ Unicorns _ ?”

Frank shakes his head. “You laugh now, but do you ever  _ wonder  _ what they really use their horns for?”

**"Because of the Arachne story," I guessed. "She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?"**

**Annabeth nodded. "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things. Anyway, I owe you."**

**"We're a team, remember?" I said. "Besides, Grover did the fancy flying."**

“You’re damn right he did!” Piper cheers. 

“They’re a  _ team _ !” Hazel squeals in Nico’s ear. She was vibrating so much, I’m surprised al of the hair on her body didn’t just shake off. 

**I thought he was asleep, but he mumbled from the corner, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?"**

“I adore him.” Frank says matter of factly. 

“I adore Festus, but you don’t hear me proclaiming it every other second.” Leo shakes his head. 

“Yeah you do.” Jason murmurs, narrowing his eyes. 

“Well, he’s just so amazing, why wouldn’t I?”

**Annabeth and I laughed.**

**She pulled apart an Oreo, handed me half. "In the Iris message ... did Luke really say nothing?"**

**I munched my cookie and thought about how to answer. The conversation via rainbow had bothered me all evening. "Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree."**

Reyna sighs. “At least he told them…”

“Not everything…” Annabeth whispers, her eyes looking distant. “Which is for the best... because it would’ve crushed me.” She admits that last part slowly. 

**In the dim bronze light of the sword blade, it was hard to read their expressions.**

**Grover let out a mournful bray.**

“No, sweetie! It’s okay!” Piper consoles like Grover was right in front of her. Which was kind of a consistent theme in this story. 

Everyone was getting so involved, it was like the characters that Percy described were right in front of them, acting it out as it happened. 

**"I should've told you the truth from the beginning." His voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along."**

**"You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus."**

“Aw… that’s so sweet.” Jason coos. “Maybe I should get him a fruit basket. Made of tin.”

Nico looks at Hazel. “You know… I brought you to camp…” he wiggles his eyebrows at her for effect. 

Hazel just shakes her, a small smile playing on her lips.  _ ‘And if it weren’t for me, they probably would’ve left you in a jar, so I think we’re even’,  _ she wanted to say. 

That thought alone almost sent her smile into the dark pits of her soul. The parts that she tried to hide in front of people she didn’t know. 

**He nodded glumly.**

**"And the other two half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp ..." I looked at Annabeth. "That was you and Luke, wasn't it?"**

“I didn’t get that.” Leo whispers. “Though, to be fair, I didn’t really try very hard.”

**She put down her Oreo, uneaten. "Like you said, Percy, a seven-year-old half-blood wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me with them. They were ... amazing monster-fighters, even without training. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us."**

“Wait… Thalia is five years older than you?” Piper asks. “She’s so old…”

Annabeth shrugs. “The tree slowed her aging. And then she became a huntress… sometimes  _ she  _ forgets how old she’s supposed to be.” 

**"I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp," he said, sniffling. "Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn't just leave Luke and Annabeth by themselves. I thought ... I thought I could lead all three of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I'd just been a little quicker ..."**

Nico licks at his lips. Leo’s foot jumps up and down. The whole car was paying close attention to what Grover said. 

Even Jason, though his eye was twitching as he stared at the bumper stickers on the back of the car in front of them. 

**"Stop it," Annabeth said. "No one blames you. Thalia didn't blame you either."**

**"She sacrificed herself to save us," he said miserably, "Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so."**

“Well, the Council of Cloven Elders is stupid!” Frank grumbles. 

“And so is every member!” Piper agrees. 

“Grover is on the council.” Nico informs them. 

“Okay, when I said  _ every  _ member…”

**"Because you wouldn't leave two other half-bloods behind?" I said. "That's not fair."**

**"Percy's right," Annabeth said. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Grover. Neither would Luke. We don't care what the council says."**

**Grover kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia and Percy."**

Nico, Hazel, and Jason all share looks. 

“Well,” the girl murmurs. “Three fifths isn’t bad.”

**"You're not lame," Annabeth insisted. "You've got more courage than any satyr I've ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy is really glad you're here right now."**

**She kicked me in the shin.**

“That  _ probably  _ wasn’t necessary.” Annabeth admits, her eyes shifting from right to left, and her cheeks tinging a light pink. 

**"Yeah," I said, which I would've done even without the kick. "It's not luck that you found Thalia and me, Grover. You've got the biggest heart of any satyr ever. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the one who finds Pan."**

**I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Grover to say something, but his breathing only got heavier. When the sound turned to snoring, I realized he'd fallen sleep.**

Leo hums softly. “Sleep sounds nice.”

Jason groans, his knuckles turning white with the force that he was gripping the steering wheel. “Tell me about it.”

**"How does he do that?" I marveled.**

“It’s easy if you have the right motivation.” Frank answers. “Actually, I find it strange that you guys  _ haven’t  _ tried falling asleep yet.”

“Annabeth and Reyna did.” Piper murmurs. 

“Yeah, but now we’re hopped up on energy, and probably going to just cry when we feel sad instead of avoiding it.” Reyna says, her head tilted to to the side. 

**"I don't know," Annabeth said. "But that was really a nice thing you told him."**

**"I meant it."**

**We rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around on the feed sacks. The zebra munched a turnip. The lion licked the last of the hamburger meat off his lips and looked at me hopefully.**

“I’m not a cat person…” Hazel says slowly. “But, poor thing…”

**Annabeth rubbed her necklace like she was thinking deep, strategic thoughts.**

**"That pine-tree bead," I said. "Is that from your first year?"**

“Add that to  _ another  _ thing I’m never going to look at the same way again…” Jason grumbles. 

Annabeth narrows her eyes. “ _ Why  _ are you staring at my camp necklace?”

Jason looks down. “I liked the designs, and thinking about how it still looked so good on such a small canvas…”

“Have you ever considered going into painting?” Nico asks genuinely. 

**She looked. She hadn't realized what she was doing.**

**"Yeah," she said. "Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress—now that was a weird summer...."**

“Why don’t we listen to  _ that  _ story instead of this depressing one?” Leo asks eagerly. 

“Because I’m too sad to tell it.” Annabeth says honestly. 

**"And the college ring is your father's?"**

**"That's none of your—" She stopped herself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."**

Hazel’s smile forms something equivalent to the Grinch’s in ’How the Grinch Stole Christmas’. She continues to press her fingers together one at a time in a criminal mastermind kind of way. 

**"You don't have to tell me."**

**"No ... it's okay." She took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her.... That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."**

Annabeth blinks a few times, her eyes glazing over a little bit. 

Nico presses closer to her. “Do you want to braid my hair again?” She just nods a little bit, and moves her hand to his dark locks. 

**"That doesn't sound so bad."**

**"Yeah, well... the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to CampHalf-Blood."**

**"You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?"**

Nobody said anything. Mostly because they knew the answer. In Annabeth’s dorm room were more than just photos of all of them. 

Her dad started in a few, usually in front of some sort of plane or monument they went to. She was with her brothers in a few, usually with bunny ears or tongues sticking out. Even her stepmother was in one or two, and those didn’t even look all that awkward. 

But still… Annabeth didn’t really go into her family history, and they were starting to see why. 

**She wouldn't meet my eyes. "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."**

“Well that’s good.” Frank murmurs. “I couldn’t imagine not having you around.”

“That’s so cheesy.” The blonde girl murmurs, ducking her head to hide the sheen of tears over her eyes. 

**"You shouldn't give up," I told her. "You should write him a letter or something."**

**"Thanks for the advice," she said coldly, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with."**

**We passed another few miles of silence.**

“I wonder what that’s like…” Jason grumbles. 

Piper shrugs. “Sounds boring.”

**"So if the gods fight," I said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"**

**She put her head against the backpack Ares had given us, and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you."**

Hazel breathes in a large amount of air. I’m fact, she takes such a big gulp, that it sounds like she is wheezing after a certain point. 

But the smile on her face never wavers. Neither does the one on Piper’s face, as she starts bouncing her legs up and down. 

“It’s the shipping way.” Leo says in a wise, and masterful tone, his hands pressing together as if in prayer. 

**"Why?"**

**"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"**

**I couldn't think of an answer for that. Fortunately I didn't have to. Annabeth was asleep.**

“That sounds nice.” Annabeth murmurs, completely ignoring Hazel and Piper’s giggling. She leans her head on the window, and pulls her blanket around her shoulders. 

**I had trouble following her example, with Grover snoring and an albino lion staring hungrily at me, but eventually I closed my eyes.**

**My nightmare started out as something I'd dreamed a million times before: I was being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket. All the other kids were going out to recess, and the teacher kept saying, Come on, Percy. You're not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencil.**

Reyna groans, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Why can’t he just be naked like normal people?”

**Then the dream strayed from the usual.**

**I looked over at the next desk and saw a girl sitting there, also wearing a straitjacket. She was my age, with unruly black, punk-style hair, dark eyeliner around her stormy green eyes, and freckles across her nose. Somehow, I knew who she was. She was Thalia, daughter of Zeus**

“I think this is the first time he’s talked about her without describing her as a tree…” Jason murmurs, exhaling through his nose. 

“Either way… she’d be a gorgeous Christmas tree.” Leo breathes out. 

**She struggled against the straitjacket, glared at me in frustration, and snapped, Well, Seaweed Brain? One of us has to get out of here.**

“Oh, no she did not.” Annabeth says groggily, her eyes half closed, and her finger wagging every which way. 

Piper rushes forward, putting a hand on each of Annabeth’s temples. “Calm… calm girl…” she says soothingly. “It’s all a dream,” Well, she wasn’t  _ lying _ . “Just go back to sleep.”

Annabeth didn’t protest, or ask how she could ‘go back to sleep’ if she was dreaming. She just mumbles, “Mmmkay…” and leans her head against Nico’s shoulder. 

**She's right, my dream-self thought. I'm going back to that cavern. I'm going to give Hades a piece of my mind.**

**The straitjacket melted off me. I fell through the classroom floor. The teacher's voice changed until it was cold and evil, echoing from the depths of a great chasm.**

**Percy Jackson, it said. Yes, the exchange went well, I see.**

Frank and Leo share a look. “Hera?” Leo asks, voice pitching higher. 

“Juno?” Frank asks as well, eyes going wide. 

And then they all looked around in terror, like she would burst out of the trunk at any moment. 

**I was back in the dark cavern, spirits of the dead drifting around me. Unseen in the pit, the monstrous thing was speaking, but this time it wasn't addressing me. The numbing power of its voice seemed directed somewhere else.**

**And he suspects nothing? it asked.**

“He’s not  _ stupid _ !” Hazel hisses. “He suspects obviously  _ something _ .”

**Another voice, one I almost recognized, answered at my shoulder. Nothing, my lord. He is as ignorant as the rest.**

Reyna purses her lips. “Is it just me… or is he using the same voice for this guy that he uses for-“

“THE BITCH!” Hazel yells, her eyes wild with glee. 

**I looked over, but no one was there. The speaker was invisible.**

**Deception upon deception, the thing in the pit mused aloud. Excellent.**

**Truly, my lord, said the voice next to me, you are well-named the Crooked One. But was it really necessary? I could have brought you what I stole directly —**

“The Crooked One?” Leo questions. 

“K-“ Piper stops herself, still very much remembering the Percy incident. “The titan of time…”

Leo raises an eyebrow. “You say that like I know who that is…”

“Your great grandfather…” Jason references their earlier conversation. 

“You mean Hazel’s ex boyfriend?”

“Thanks for picking at  _ that  _ wound…” Hazel huffs. 

**You? the monster said in scorn. You have already shown your limits. You would have failed me completely had I not intervened.**

**But, my lord—**

The others were still trying to tell Leo who the ‘Crooked One’, was, when Nico yells, “Kronos! The person talking is Kronos!”

Frank gasps, appalled. 

Nico rolls his eyes. “It’s not like I said  _ Voldemort _ !” Another gasp. 

**Peace, little servant. Our six months have bought us much. Zeus's anger has grown. Poseidon has played his most desperate card. Now we shall use it against him. Shortly you shall have the reward you wish, and your revenge. As soon as both items are delivered into my hands ... but wait. He is here.**

**What? The invisible servant suddenly sounded tense. You summoned him, my lord?**

“He just doesn’t want his ass to get caught.” Reyna grumbles. 

“That’s what I’m saying!” Hazel enthuses, waving her arms around. 

**No. The full force of the monsters attention was now pouring over me, freezing me in place. Blast his father's blood—he is too changeable, too unpredictable. The boy brought himself hither.**

**Impossible! the servant cried.**

**For a weakling such as you, perhaps, the voice snarled. Then its cold power turned back on me. So ... you wish to dream of your quest, young half-blood? Then I will oblige.**

“This is going to go no where good.” Piper predicts. 

Jason rolls his window down, and turns his attention to the long awaited person that takes his order. 

**The scene changed.**

**I was standing in a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. The empty, horrid throne was made from human bones fused together. Standing at the foot of the dais was my mother, frozen in shimmering golden light, her arms outstretched.**

Reyna and Nico both widen their eyes. 

Jason lists off a long order that he had practically memorized from years of this abusive challenge. Nobody pays him any attention. 

**I tried to step toward her, but my legs wouldn't move. I reached for her, only to realize that my hands were withering to bones. Grinning skeletons in Greek armor crowded around me, draping me with silk robes, wreathing my head with laurels that smoked with Chimera poison, burning into my scalp.**

**The evil voice began to laugh. Hail, the conquering hero!**

Leo shudders. “Well, I know what’s going to be on  _ my  _ mind when I go to sleep tonight.”

**I woke with a start.**

**Grover was shaking my shoulder. "The truck's stopped," he said. "We think they're coming to check on the animals."**

Piper makes a face. “Right! I almost forgot about  _ those  _ assholes!”

**"Hide!" Annabeth hissed.**

**She had it easy. She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Grover and I had to dive behind feed sacks and hope we looked like turnips.**

“Those would be some really big turnips…” Frank whispers. 

“And oddly shaped.” Nico comments. 

**The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.**

**"Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.**

“Oh… so not only are they  _ smuggling  _ animals…” Leo says slowly, actual indignation in his tone. “But they have the  _ audacity  _ to complain about it too.”

**"You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.**

Percy even  _ sounded  _ angry. Like it was happening right in front of him, and he was both explaining what was going on, and reacting to it at the same time. 

**The lion roared in indignation.**

**"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.**

**Next to me, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous.**

Piper snorts, right into her hand. Leo also huffs a breath out. When the whole world felt dark, a little light was needed. 

**The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"**

“I will kill a bitch.” Reyna declares. They didn’t doubt that she meant what she said. 

**The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at me.**

**There was no sound, but as clear as day, I heard it say: Free me, lord. Please.**

“Huh.” Hazel says. Nothing more. Just, huh. It’s all the really needs to be said. 

**I was too stunned to react.**

**There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer.**

Jason taps on the steering wheel, staring at the  _ still _ not moving line. 

“Sometimes I really hate you guys.” He mumbles. 

**The trucker inside with us yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"**

**A voice outside—it must've been Eddie's—shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"**

**"What are you banging for?"**

“I don’t get it.” Frank whispers, stroking his chin. 

“Yeah… I’m too tired for this shit.” Leo agrees. 

**Knock, knock, knock.**

**Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"**

**Our guy Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.**

“They’re  _ both  _ idiots!” Hazel bursts out, her arms going wide. 

Nico narrows his eyes at her. “And I thought  _ I  _ was the Italian one.”

**A second later, Annabeth appeared next to me. She must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer. She said, "This transport business can't be legal."**

**"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"**

“Yes!” Piper cheers. “Go lion! I’m gonna call you Maurice.”

“Thank you Maurice.” Nico deadpans, nodding towards the radio. 

**That's right, the zebra's voice said in my mind.**

**"We've got to free them!" Grover said. He and Annabeth both looked at me, waiting for my lead.**

“Why?” Leo asks, his voice going squeaky. “Just do it!” He orders. 

**I'd heard the zebra talk, but not the lion. Why? Maybe it was another learning disability ... I could only understand zebras? Then I thought: horses. What had Annabeth said about Poseidon creating horses? Was a zebra close enough to a horse? Was that why I could understand it?**

**The zebra said, Open my cage, lord. Please. I'll be fine after that.**

“If I didn’t know the zebra was cool, I’d think he was evil.” Frank murmurs. “It just seems like that manipulative thing that evil people say…”

**Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but I knew they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. I grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.**

Jason puts a hand to his temple. “So… we have Maurice the lion, and the evil zebra.” He recaps. 

“Just wait until you caffeinate us.” Reyna warns, reaching into Leo’s hand and plucking the stress you out of it. 

**The zebra burst out. It turned to me and bowed. Thank you, lord.**

**Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing.**

“I wanna understand goat talk!” Leo yells. 

“You’re not gonna understand goat talk.” Hazel tells him. 

“I  _ could  _ understand goat talk!”

“You’re not gonna understand goat talk.” Hazel grumbles. 

_ (Twenty years from now when he understands goat talk…) _

_ “Dammit!” _

**Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. We rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. We'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas.**

“Now why do we have to invade his privacy to get to hear that story?” Piper exclaims. 

Reyna raises an eyebrow. “Probably because that would be a really difficult story to tell without talking about the animal smuggling, and the talking zebra.”

The girl at the Starbucks window raises an eyebrow at the car. Jason waves her off. “Online… role playing…”

**Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"**

**"Now would be a good time to leave," Annabeth said.**

**"The other animals first," Grover said.**

“Yes!” Jason yells, looking at the steaming drinks in his lap. “Fucking finally!”

Everyone gasps. 

“Yeah… that  _ did  _ feel weird.” He admits, giving Hazel and Nico the cups as he drives into the parking lot. 

**I cut the locks with my sword. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra.**

**"Good luck," I told the animals. The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets.**

“He’s not going to  _ eat  _ the antelope and the zebra, right!” Frank questions. 

Piper gasps in mock offense. “Don’t talk about Maurice like that.”

**Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos.**

**"Will the animals be okay?" I asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all—"**

**"Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."**

“A what now?” Leo questions. 

**"Meaning?"**

**"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."**

“Why can’t  _ we  _ get a blessing like that?” Piper asks. 

**"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked.**

“At least  _ someone  _ is asking the important questions.” Leo reasons, putting his hands on his hips. 

**"It only works on wild animals."**

**"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned.**

A few people giggle, as Jason tackles the first group of drinks. 

**"Hey!" I protested.**

**"Kidding," she said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."**

The boy looks at the cup. “Coffee… black.”

Nico raises his hand… and then points at the snoring Annabeth. “I’ll just hold on to that for her.”

**We stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was a hundred and ten degrees, easy, and we must've looked like deep-fried vagrants, but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay us much attention.**

Piper nods. “Fair. I’m hoping we get to hear more about them before this is over.”

**We passed the Monte Carlo and the MGM. We passed pyramids, a pirate ship, and the Statue of Liberty, which was a pretty small replica, but still made me homesick.**

“Hot chocolate. Extra whipped cream.”

Hazel grabs the warm cup from Jason, and promptly places it into Nico’s hands. The boy sighs, breathing in the sweet, chocolate fumes 

**I wasn't sure what we were looking for. Maybe just a place to get out of the heat for a few minutes, find a sandwich and a glass of lemonade, make a new plan for getting west.**

“Peach iced tea.” Jason says, holding a large plastic container filled with amber liquid. 

“Thank you, kind sir.” Hazel laughs, looking down at her drink like it was the sweetest treasure she’s ever held. 

**We must have taken a wrong turn, because we found ourselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air-conditioning that smelled like flowers—lotus blossom, maybe. I'd never smelled one, so I wasn't sure.**

Nico tenses, nearly spilling the whipped cream in his cup. His wide eyes stare at the radio. 

Haze puts a hand in between his shoulder blades. “You okay?” She asks in between sipping from her straw. 

**The doorman smiled at us. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"**

“That’s creepy.” Piper murmurs, sharing a look with Leo. 

“Yeah. Even before I learned about monsters, that would’ve had me running.”

**I'd learned to be suspicious, the last week or so. I figured anybody might be a monster or a god. You just couldn't tell. But this guy was normal. One look at him, and I could see. Besides, I was so relieved to hear somebody who sounded sympathetic that I nodded and said we'd love to come in. Inside, we took one look around, and Grover said, "Whoa."**

**The whole lobby was a giant game room. And I'm not talking about cheesy old Pac-Man games or slot machines. There was an indoor waterslide snaking around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors. There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games, each one the size of a widescreen TV. Basically, you name it, this place had it. There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine.**

“Huh?” A few people ask. 

“Whoa!” Others coo. 

Even Jason had stopped rummaging for drinks to listen to the description. 

**"Hey!" a bellhop said. At least I guessed he was a bellhop. He wore a white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts, and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."**

“Their  _ what _ ?” Frank exclaims, cheeks reddening. “What is happening?”

**I stammered, "Um, but..."**

**"No, no," he said, laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, loom 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."**

“This  _ can’t  _ be real!” Leo says, emphatically shaking his head. “It has to be some trick of the most or something…”

“Oh…” Nico whispers, eyebrows furrowed in thought. “It’s real.”

**He handed us each a green plastic credit card.**

**I knew there must be some mistake. Obviously he thought we were some millionaire's kids. But I took the card and said, "How much is on here?"**

“Good!” Reyna praises. “Always know how much you have!”

**His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"**

**"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"**

**He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."**

Everyone just kind of blinks, their jaws dropping. 

“Okay, what the hell?” Hazel asks, running her fingers over the cold condensation on the outside of her cup. 

**We took the elevator upstairs and checked out our room. It was a suite with three separate bedrooms and a bar stocked with candy, sodas, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy towels and water beds with feather pillows. A big-screen television with satellite and high-speed Internet. The balcony had its own hot tub, and sure enough, there was a skeet-shooting machine and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons right out over the Las Vegas skyline and plug them with your gun. I didn't see how that could be legal, but I thought it was pretty cool. The view over the Strip and the desert was amazing, though I doubted we'd ever find time to look at the view with a room like this.**

Jason clears his throat. “Anyways…” he picks up the next drink. “Pink drink!”

Piper leans forward, flashing a quirky smile. “Thank  _ you _ !”

**"Oh, goodness," Annabeth said. "This place is ..."**

**"Sweet," Grover said. "Absolutely sweet."**

**There were clothes in the closet, and they fit me. I frowned, thinking that this was a little strange.**

Frank gently shakes his head. “This is going to go  _ so  _ badly.”

**I threw Ares's backpack in the trash can. Wouldn't need that anymore. When we left, I could just charge a new one at the hotel store.**

“Fair.” Reyna murmurs, tapping her temple. “Always charge one to the hotel.”

**I took a shower, which felt awesome after a week of grimy travel. I changed clothes, ate a bag of chips, drank three Cokes, and came out feeling better than I had in a long time. In the back of my mind, some small problem kept nagging me. I'd had a dream or something ... I needed to talk to my friends. But I was sure it could wait.**

“Something is  _ really  _ wrong here.” Jason whispers, rubbing on the frame of his glasses. 

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” Leo says sarcastically. 

Jason glares at him. “I guess you don’t want your Starbucks order.”

“No, dude! I was joking! I love you!”

**I came out of the bedroom and found that Annabeth and Grover had also showered and changed clothes. Grover was eating potato chips to his heart's content, while Annabeth cranked up the National Geographic Channel.**

**"All those stations," I told her, "and you turn on National Geographic. Are you insane?"**

“It’s interesting!” Annabeth grumbles in her sleep, her eyebrows scrunched up. 

**"It's interesting."**

**"I feel good," Grover said. "I love this place."**

**Without his even realizing it, the wings sprouted out of his shoes and lifted him a foot off the ground, then back down again.**

Hazel giggles at the description, patting the cardboard cup carrier still settled in her lap. 

**"So what now?" Annabeth asked. "Sleep?"**

**Grover and I looked at each other and grinned. We both held up our green plastic LotusCash cards.**

**"Play time," I said.**

Jason looks at the next round of drinks to pass out. “Two matcha frappes…” he grumbles, passing them into the back. 

“We love you!” Frank and Reyna yell at the same time. 

“Yeah, whatever.”

**I couldn't remember the last time I had so much fun. I came from a relatively poor family. Our idea of a splurge was eating out at Burger King and renting a video. A five-star Vegas hotel? Forget it.**

**I bungee-jumped the lobby five or six times, did the waterslide, snowboarded the artificial ski slope, and played virtual-reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter. I saw Grover a few times, going from game to game. He really liked the reverse hunter thing—where the deer go out and shoot the rednecks. I saw Annabeth playing trivia games and other brainiac stuff. They had this huge 3-D sim game where you build your own city, and you could actually see the holographic buildings rise on the display board. I didn't think much of it, but Annabeth loved it.**

“Huh…” Leo murmurs. “Remind me never to anger Grover.”

“Don’t worry.” Piper says, with an air of confidence. “I’ll get you an in.”

**I'm not sure when I first realized something was wrong.**

“I’m surprised he hasn’t already.” Frank mutters. 

“Hey!” Nico defends. “It’s not that easy!”

**Probably, it was when I noticed the guy standing next to me at VR sharpshooters. He was about thirteen, I guess, but his clothes were weird. I thought he was some Elvis impersonator's son. He wore bell-bottom jeans and a red T-shirt with black piping, and his hair was permed and gelled like a New Jersey girl's on homecoming night.**

**We played a game of sharpshooters together and he said, "Groovy, man. Been here two weeks, and the games keep getting better and better."**

“Two weeks?” Jason questions. 

“ _ Groovy? _ ” Reyna asks like the word had personally offended her. For all I know, it could’ve. 

**Groovy?**

**Later, while we were talking, I said something was "sick," and he looked at me kind of startled, as if he'd never heard the word used that way before.**

**He said his name was Darrin, but as soon as I started asking him questions he got bored with me and started to go back to the computer screen.**

Hazel huffs, rolling her eyes. “ _ Darrin _ .”

**I said, "Hey, Darrin?"**

**"What?"**

**"What year is it?"**

**He frowned at me. "In the game?"**

“Darrin is a whole ass mood.” Leo comments, though his focus is only half on the radio. He keeps stealing longing glances at the front seat. 

**"No. In real life."**

**He had to think about it. "1977."**

“There it is.” Frank says, leaning his elbows on his knees, and taking a few more sips of his cold drink. 

**"No," I said, getting a little scared. "Really."**

**"Hey, man. Bad vibes. I got a game happening."**

**After that he totally ignored me.**

“Can I  _ please  _ have my order?” Leo begs Jason, his bottom lip quivering. 

Jason raises an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest. 

**I started talking to people, and I found it wasn't easy. They were glued to the TV screen, or the video game, or their food, or whatever. I found a guy who told me it was 1985. Another guy told me it was 1993. They all claimed they hadn't been in here very long, a few days, a few weeks at most. They didn't really know and they didn't care.**

**Then it occurred to me: how long had I been here? It seemed like only a couple of hours, but was it?**

“Fuck…” Hazel says slowly. Her straw drops out of her mouth. 

**I tried to remember why we were here. We were going to Los Angeles. We were supposed to find the entrance to the Underworld. My mother ... for a scary second, I had trouble remembering her name. Sally. Sally Jackson. I had to find her. I had to stop Hades from causing World War III.**

“HOW COULD HE FORGET SALLY JACKSON!?” Reyna exclaims, cheeks flushing. 

Nico looks down. Sometimes, he found it hard to remember what his mom had looked like when he wasn’t concentrating. 

**I found Annabeth still building her city.**

**"Come on," I told her. "We've got to get out of here."**

**No response.**

“Fine!” Jason exclaims, grabbing a paper bag. “Three cake pops for Leo!”

The boy lunges forward, grabbing his treats. 

**I shook her. "Annabeth?"**

**She looked up, annoyed. "What?**

**"We need to leave."**

“Yes! Leave!” Piper enthuses, scorching away from Leo devouring his cake pops. 

**"Leave? What are you talking about? I've just got the towers—"**

**"This place is a trap."**

Nico wrinkles his nose, and looks down at the last cup in the cardboard tray. He sniffs it, and looks around. “Who ordered the warm milk?”

**She didn't respond until I shook her again. "What?"**

**"Listen. The Underworld. Our quest!"**

“Oh! That’s mine.” Jason responds, grabbing the drink from Nico. 

**"Oh, come on, Percy. Just a few more minutes."**

**"Annabeth, there are people here from 1977. Kids who have never aged. You check in, and you stay forever."**

The others share a look. “You know that will probably make you sleepy, right?” Leo asks, his cheeks resembling those of a chipmunk. 

**"So?" she asked. "Can you imagine a better place?"**

Jason just takes a long sip from his cup. 

**I grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from the game.**

“Ooh, bad move.” Piper murmurs, scrunching her face. 

**"Hey!" She screamed and hit me, but nobody else even bothered looking at us. They were too busy.**

**I made her look directly in my eyes. I said, "Spiders. Large, hairy spiders."**

“Ew.” Hazel whispers. Jason still had the lid to his lips. 

**That jarred her. Her vision cleared. "Oh my gods," she said. "How long have we—"**

**"I don't know, but we've got to find Grover."**

The blonde boy takes a long breath when he stops taking his drink. “That’s what I’m counting on, honestly. You people don’t honestly think I’m going to drive you past my bedtime?”

**We went searching, and found him still playing Virtual Deer Hunter.**

“That damned bedtime.” Nico groans, rolling his eyes. 

**"Grover!" we both shouted.**

**He said, "Die, human! Die, silly polluting nasty person!"**

“Yeah!” Reyna cries. “Die!”

“I didn’t know you were such an environmentalist.” Frank observes. 

Reyna just gives him a look. “What does that have to do with anything?”

**"Grover!"**

**He turned the plastic gun on me and started clicking, as if I were just another image from the screen.**

**I looked at Annabeth, and together we took Grover by the arms and dragged him away. His flying shoes sprang to life and started tugging his legs in the other direction as he shouted, "No! I just got to a new level! No!"**

“Damn you, Jackson!” Leo grumbles, lightly shaking his head. 

**The Lotus bellhop hurried up to us. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"**

Several pairs of eyebrows shoot up. Annabeth murmurs, “Yes, please…”

**"We're leaving," I told him.**

**"Such a shame," he said, and I got the feeling that he really meant it, that we'd be breaking his heart if we went. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members."**

**He held out the cards, and I wanted one. I knew that if I took one, I'd never leave. I'd stay here, happy forever, playing games forever, and soon I'd forget my mom, and my quest, and maybe even my own name. I'd be playing virtual rifleman with groovy Disco Darrin forever.**

“That doesn’t sound so-“ Leo starts to say. 

“No!” Frank and Piper tell him at the same time. 

**Grover reached for the card, but Annabeth yanked back his arm and said, "No, thanks."**

**We walked toward the door, and as we did, the smell of the food and the sounds of the games seemed to get more and more inviting. I thought about our room upstairs. We could just stay the night, sleep in a real bed for once....**

Jason stretches his arms in front of him, and looks at the back seat. “You guys ready!”

“As I’ll ever be.” Hazel replies, around yet another sip of her peach tea. 

**Then we burst through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk. It felt like afternoon, about the same time of day we'd gone into the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had completely changed. It was stormy, with heat lightning flashing out in the desert.**

**Ares's backpack was slung over my shoulder, which was odd, because I was sure I had thrown it in the trash can in room 4001, but at the moment I had other problems to worry about.**

“I have a  _ bad  _ feeling about this.” Frank whispers. 

Nico buries his face into his melting whipped cream. 

**I ran to the nearest newspaper stand and read the year first. Thank the gods, it was the same year it had been when we went in. Then I noticed the date: June twentieth.**

The car heads towards the open road. 

**We had been in the Lotus Casino for five days.**

“Finally!” Jason exclaims as everyone else stares in shock at the radio. “We’re finally back on our-“

**We had only one day left until the summer solstice. One day to complete our quest.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so I actually finished this book for my personal reading a few days ago. I’m getting more ideas... let’s hope I don’t forget all of them when the time comes 😭


	18. We Shop For Water Beds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You get a nickel every time I break the fourth wall 😚

“Way!”

Piper blinks a few times. “Is it just me, or did it take a  _ really  _ long time for you to finish that sentence?”

**It was Annabeth's idea.**

“That’s how a  _ lot  _ of our stories start.” Leo observes, staring glumly at his now empty paper bag. 

**She loaded us into the back of a Vegas taxi as if we actually had money, and told the driver, "Los Angeles, please."**

**The cabbie chewed his cigar and sized us up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."**

**"You accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked.**

Nico raises an eyebrow. “Why didn’t I try that?” He asks softly. 

“What was that?” Frank questions. 

“Nothing.” Nico mumbles. 

**He shrugged. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first."**

**Annabeth handed him her green LotusCash card.**

**He looked at it skeptically.**

“I probably would, too.” Reyna admits. “A casino card that a child is carrying  _ from  _ a casino he’s probably never heard of…”

“Can we get vacation Reyna back?” Leo questions. “We still have four more days!”

**"Swipe it," Annabeth invited.**

**He did.**

**His meter machine started rattling. The lights flashed. Finally an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign.**

“That’s new.” Piper comments, her tongue sticking out from the side. 

**The cigar fell out of the driver's mouth. He looked back at us, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles... uh, Your Highness?"**

The group giggles. Hazel puts a fist to her mouth, and shakes her head. 

“I’ve never known royalty that resorted to wearing old water park souvenirs.” She whispers. 

**"The Santa Monica Pier." Annabeth sat up a little straighter. I could tell she liked the "Your Highness" thing. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."**

“I  _ did not _ !” Annabeth protests, furrowing her eyebrows. 

“Are you still sleeping?” Jason asks her. 

“Yes.” She replies, not even bothering to still sound sleepy. 

**Maybe she shouldn't have told him that. The cab's speedometer never dipped below ninety-five the whole way through the Mojave Desert.**

**On the road, we had plenty of time to talk. I told Annabeth and Grover about my latest dream, but the details got sketchier the more I tried to remember them. The Lotus Casino seemed to have short-circuited my memory. I couldn't recall what the invisible servant's voice had sounded like, though I was sure it was somebody I knew. The servant had called the monster in the pit something other than "my lord" ... some special name or title....**

“It’s good that he’s sharing his secrets with them.” Leo says. “I mean, we’re a great group, and none of  _ us  _ keep secrets.”

The rest of the group remains silent, even Annabeth, who had now opened her eyes. 

“Right?” Nico questions, now looking invested in the conversation. Not even Hazel met his eye. 

**"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades."**

**"Maybe ..." I said, though neither sounded quite right.**

**"That throne room sounds like Hades's," Grover said. "That's the way it's usually described."**

Piper taps her knee. “Yeah… but the throne room was only shown when it was made aware that Percy was there…” Though she was trying to alleviate the awkwardness, it didn’t really help. 

**I shook my head. "Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit ... I don't know. It just didn't feel like a god's voice."**

**Annabeth's eyes widened.**

Piper sends Frank a pleading look. “Oh! I think she figured it out!” He cries in a not-so subtle tone. 

Leo gives him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 

**"What?" I asked.**

**"Oh ... nothing. I was just—No, it has to be Hades. Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master bolt, and something went wrong—"**

**"Like what?"**

“He trusted a bitch.” Hazel exclaims. Though, if she was trying to dissolve the tension, or just call Luke a bitch again is unclear. 

**"I—I don't know," she said. "But if he stole Zeus's symbol of power from Olympus, and the gods were hunting him, I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it to Hades. That's what the voice said in your dream, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt."**

**I wasn't sure what was wrong with her. She looked pale.**

“Dammit, Annabeth! Just tell us what you figured out already!” Reyna yells, smacking her knee. 

“No!” Annabeth replies. 

“Stop yelling!” Jason shrieks. 

**"But if I'd already retrieved the bolt," I said, "why would I be traveling to the Underworld?"**

**"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back."**

**I whistled. "You have evil thoughts for a goat."**

“Well, good for him.” Nico murmurs. “Everyone should have a  _ little  _ evil in them every now and then.”

“You scare me.” Frank’s informs the boy, eyes wide. 

“As I should.”

**"Why, thank you."**

**"But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items," I said. "If the master bolt is one, what's the other?"**

**Grover shook his head, clearly mystified.**

“Hades’ symbol of power that was mentioned earlier, and can turn people invisible.” Piper guesses. 

“So… we’re just totally ignoring the no spoilers rule?” Hazel grumbles, crossing her arms. 

**Annabeth was looking at me as if she knew my next question, and was silently willing me not to ask it.**

**"You have an idea what might be in that pit, don't you?" I asked her. "I mean, if it isn't Hades?"**

**"Percy ... let's not talk about it. Because if it isn't Hades ... No. It has to be Hades."**

“I still wish it had been Hades.” Annabeth sighs. 

“I don’t know who it actually is, but  _ me too _ !” Leo agrees. “Mostly because I don’t know who it actually is.”

**Wasteland rolled by. We passed a sign that said CALIFORNIA STATE LINE, 12 MILES.**

**I got the feeling I was missing one simple, critical piece of information. It was like when I stared at a common word I should know, but I couldn't make sense of it because one or two letters were floating around. The more I thought about my quest, the more I was sure that confronting Hades wasn't the real answer. There was something else going on, something even more dangerous.**

“Everything that he brings into focus is important, because it has to have stood out for him to  _ need  _ to remember it.” Jason says softly, nodding his head. 

**The problem was: we were hurtling toward the Underworld at ninety-five miles an hour, betting that Hades had the master bolt. If we got there and found out we were wrong, we wouldn't have time to correct ourselves. The solstice deadline would pass and war would begin.**

Frank’s eyes light up. “Oh! So that must mean that the bad guy is-“

“Bitch!” Hazel hisses, turning to glare at him. 

**"The answer is in the Underworld," Annabeth assured me. "You saw spirits of the dead, Percy. There's only one place that could be. We're doing the right thing."**

“You know what else is in the Underworld.” Nico shudders, tightly closing his eyes. 

Annabeth wraps an arm around his shoulders, and he leans his head onto her shoulder. 

**She tried to boost our morale by suggesting clever strategies for getting into the Land of the Dead, but my heart wasn't in it. There were just too many unknown factors. It was like cramming for a test without knowing the subject. And believe me, I'd done that enough times.**

“Valid.” Piper mutters. 

“Who does that?” Jason asks at the same time. 

**The cab sped west. Every gust of wind through Death Valley sounded like a spirit of the dead. Every time the brakes hissed on an eighteen-wheeler, it reminded me of Echidna's reptilian voice.**

“That doesn’t sound good.” Frank sighs, wincing in sympathy. 

“It is what it is.” Leo shrugs. “That’s my motto for all of the messed up stuff I go through.”

Frank brings Leo into a hug. 

**At sunset, the taxi dropped us at the beach in Santa Monica. It looked exactly the way L.A. beaches do in the movies, only it smelled worse. There were carnival rides lining the Pier, palm trees lining the sidewalks, homeless guys sleeping in the sand dunes, and surfer dudes waiting for the perfect wave.**

“Aw, he really captured home.” Piper coos, placing a hand over her heart. 

**Grover, Annabeth, and I walked down to the edge of the surf.**

**"What now?" Annabeth asked.**

“Never ask that.” Reyna groans, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Rookie move.”

**The Pacific was turning gold in the setting sun. I thought about how long it had been since I'd stood on the beach at Montauk, on the opposite side of the country, looking out at a different sea.**

**How could there be a god who could control all that? What did my science teacher used to say—two-thirds of the earth's surface was covered in water? How could I be the son of someone that powerful?**

“Is he just  _ now _ wondering that?” Leo asks. 

“Hey!” Hazel defends. “It takes some time!” Like, about eighty extra years. It’s not an easy thing to get used to.”

**I stepped into the surf.**

**"Percy?" Annabeth said. "What are you doing?"**

**I kept walking, up to my waist, then my chest.**

“Okay…” Jason says slowly. “Not odd at all…”

**She called after me, "You know how polluted that water is? There're all kinds of toxic—"**

**That's when my head went under.**

“The lengths he will go to not to listen to me.” Annabeth groans, looking out the foggy window. 

“I think you should take it as a compliment that he remembered everything you said to him during that quest.” Piper shrugs, tilting her head to one side. 

**I held my breath at first. It's difficult to intentionally inhale water. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I gasped. Sure enough, I could breathe normally.**

**I walked down into the shoals. I shouldn't have been able to see through the murk, but somehow I could tell where everything was. I could sense the rolling texture of the bottom. I could make out sand-dollar colonies dotting the sandbars. I could even see the currents, warm and cold streams swirling together.**

“Damned Aquaman.” Leo murmurs, but he says it with awe, not actual annoyance. 

“Even though Marvel movies are better.” Reyna sighs. 

“How dare-“ Leo starts to say, before putting finger up. “Wait… animated or live action?”

**I felt something rub against my leg. I looked down and almost shot out of the water like a ballistic missile. Sliding along beside me was a five-foot-long mako shark.**

**But the thing wasn't attacking. It was nuzzling me. Heeling like a dog. Tentatively, I touched its dorsal fin. It bucked a little, as if inviting me to hold tighter. I grabbed the fin with both hands. It took off, pulling me along. The shark carried me down into the darkness. It deposited me at the edge of the ocean proper, where the sand bank dropped off into a huge chasm. It was like standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon at midnight, not being able to see much, but knowing the void was right there.**

“Why does he say that, like he has experience from that situation?” Nico asks suspiciously. 

Annabeth avoids eye contact with the other passengers. 

**The surface shimmered maybe a hundred and fifty feet above. I knew I should've been crushed by the pressure. Then again, I shouldn't have been able to breathe. I wondered if there was a limit to how deep I could go, if I could sink straight to the bottom of the Pacific.**

“Do you think-“ Leo starts to ask, stroking his chin. 

“No!” Everyone yells. 

“No!” Reyna says with everyone else, though mutters under her breath, “Though is really like to see it.”

**Then I saw something glimmering in the darkness below, growing bigger and brighter as it rose toward me. A woman's voice, like my mother's, called: "Percy Jackson."**

“Sally!” Hazel coos, a soft smile on her face. 

“You really love her, don’t you?” Piper giggles. 

Hazel’s smile freezes, and then she looks at Frank and Reyna. A shadow crosses her facets she looks back towards the radio. 

**As she got closer, her shape became clearer. She had flowing black hair, a dress made of green silk. Light flickered around her, and her eyes were so distractingly beautiful I hardly noticed the stallion-sized sea horse she was riding.**

**She dismounted. The sea horse and the mako shark whisked off and started playing something that looked like tag. The underwater lady smiled at me. "You've come far, Percy Jackson. Well done."**

“She rides a seahorse?” Leo enthuses, jumping in his seat. “Awesome!”

“Damnit, Per-“ Piper begins to say. 

“Don’t!” Frank warns her. “Not now. Not until the next book..”

**I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I bowed. "You're the woman who spoke to me in the Mississippi River."**

**"Yes, child. I am a Nereid, a spirit of the sea. It was not easy to appear so far upriver, but the naiads, my freshwater cousins, helped sustain my life force. They honor Lord Poseidon, though they do not serve in his court."**

“Isn’t Poseidon’s wife a Nereid?” Jason questions. 

“Yup.” Nico answers. 

“And he dared a woman that looks like a Nereid.”

“Bingo.” Annabeth murmurs. 

“His wife’s sister…”

“No one Eve said our family had  _ healthy  _ relationships.” Hazel sighs. “My dad got obsessed with and married his niece, who is the child of your dad and their other sister who he forced to…” She shuffles uncomfortably. 

“We get the picture.” Reyna informs her. 

**"And ... you serve in Poseidon's court?"**

**She nodded. "It has been many years since a child of the Sea God has been born. We have watched you with great interest."**

**Suddenly I remembered faces in the waves off MontaukBeach when I was a little boy, reflections of smiling women. Like so many of the weird things in my life, I'd never given it much thought before.**

“No wonder he paid extra attention to all of this.” Leo observes, puckering his lips. 

**"If my father is so interested in me," I said, "why isn't he here? Why doesn't he speak to me?"**

“Big brain question.” Piper nods, and taps her temple. 

**A cold current rose out of the depths.**

“Just… maybe don’t ask them in your father’s realm.” Jason admits, moving his shoulders from left to right. 

**"Do not judge the Lord of the Sea too harshly," the Nereid told me. "He stands at the brink of an unwanted war. He has much to occupy his time. Besides, he is forbidden to help you directly. The gods may not show such favoritism."**

**"Even to their own children?"**

“ _ Especially  _ to them.” Hazel murmurs, rolling her eyes. 

**"Especially to them. The gods can work by indirect influence only. That is why I give you a warning, and a gift."**

“That’s what I said!” Hazel deadpans. “Except with way more sarcasm and bitterness.”

**She held out her hand. Three white pearls flashed in her palm.**

**"I know you journey to Hades's realm," she said. "Few mortals have ever done this and survived: Orpheus, who had great music skill; Hercules, who had great strength; Houdini, who could escape even the depths of Tartarus. Do you have these talents?"**

Annabeth and Nico wince, still leaning on to each other.

“Too soon, dude.” Leo whispers under his breath. 

**"Urn ... no, ma'am."**

“At least he’s honest?” Piper asks, her voice pitching higher. 

**"Ah, but you have something else, Percy. You have gifts you have only begun to know. The oracles have foretold a great and terrible future for you, should you survive to manhood. Poseidon would not have you die before your time. Therefore take these, and when you are in need, smash a pearl at your feet."**

“Um… what prophecy?” Jason asks. 

“We didn’t tell Percy until the fifth book, you can wait until then too.” Annabeth murmurs, gently closing her eyes. 

**"What will happen?"**

**"That," she said, "depends on the need. But remember: what belongs to the sea will always return to the sea."**

“Ominous, but okay…” Leo says slowly. 

**"What about the warning?"**

**Her eyes flickered with green light. "Go with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all. Hades feeds on doubt and hopelessness. He will trick you if he can, make you mistrust your own judgment. Once you are in his realm, he will never willingly let you leave. Keep faith. Good luck, Percy Jackson."**

“At least some people understand his true nature.” Nico yawns, stretching his arms to the ceiling. 

“Ain’t that the truth.” Hazel agrees, bumping his fist with her own. 

**She summoned her sea horse and rode toward the void.**

**"Wait!" I called. "At the river, you said not to trust the gifts. What gifts?"**

“The only gifts you were given!” Piper yells. “Minus the pearls of course…” she adds as an afterthought, her eyes darting from side to side. 

**"Good-bye, young hero," she called back, her voice fading into the depths. "You must listen to your heart." She became a speck of glowing green, and then she was gone.**

**I wanted to follow her down into the darkness. I wanted to see the court of Poseidon. But I looked up at the sunset darkening on the surface. My friends were waiting. We had so little time....**

“Right…” Frank whispers, eyes wide. “They still have a deadline!”

“Is that really still going on?” Leo asks. “Sounds fake.”

**I kicked upward toward the shore.**

**When I reached the beach, my clothes dried instantly. I told Grover and Annabeth what had happened, and showed them the pearls.**

**Annabeth grimaced. "No gift comes without a price."**

“True!” Everyone says at the same time. 

**"They were free."**

**"No." She shook her head. "'There is no such thing as a free lunch.' That's an ancient Greek saying that translated pretty well into American. There will be a price. You wait."**

**On that happy thought, we turned our backs on the sea.**

“Why can’t a happy thought ever actually be happy?” Frank grimaces, looking down at the floor. 

**With some spare change from Ares's backpack, we took the bus into West Hollywood. I showed the driver the Underworld address slip I'd taken from Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium, but he'd never heard of DOA Recording Studios.**

“Of course.” Jason sighs, nearly dropping his forehead on the top of the steering wheel. “Thank gods Annabeth couldn’t see that.” He whispers. 

“I see everything!” She yells, pointing two fingers at the driver. 

**"You remind me of somebody I saw on TV," he told me. "You a child actor or something?"**

**"Uh ... I'm a stunt double ... for a lot of child actors."**

“I’m lowkey hoping he doesn’t believe that.” Piper sighs, shaking her head wildly. 

**"Oh! That explains it."**

**We thanked him and got off quickly at the next stop.**

“I hate it here.” Piper groans, facepalming. 

**We wandered for miles on foot, looking for DOA. Nobody seemed to know where it was. It didn't appear in the phone book.**

Leo licks his lips. “What’s a phone book?” He sounded deadly serious. 

“I hate it here.” Hazel grumbles underneath her breath. 

**Twice, we ducked into alleys to avoid cop cars.**

**I froze in front of an appliance-store window because a television was playing an interview with somebody who looked very familiar—my stepdad, Smelly Gabe. He was talking to Barbara Walters—I mean, as if he were some kind of huge celebrity. She was interviewing him in our apartment, in the middle of a poker game, and there was a young blond lady sitting next to him, patting his hand.**

“What the fuck?” Reyna hisses, cracking her knuckles. She looked like she would easily destroy the man if he was actually in front of her. Even if he wasn’t, I didn’t doubt that she would destroy the bastard. 

**A fake tear glistened on his cheek. He was saying, "Honest, Ms. Walters, if it wasn't for Sugar here, my grief counselor, I'd be a wreck. My stepson took everything I cared about. My wife ... my Camaro ... I—I'm sorry. I have trouble talking about it."**

**"There you have it, America." Barbara Walters turned to the camera. "A man torn apart. An adolescent boy with serious issues. Let me show you, again, the last known photo of this troubled young fugitive, taken a week ago in Denver."**

Leo shifts uncomfortably. He remembered things like that being said about him. Of course, his aunt said it either directly to his face, or when she thought he wasn’t listening. It was never an easy thing to hear. 

**The screen cut to a grainy shot of me, Annabeth, and Grover standing outside the Colorado diner, talking to Ares.**

**"Who are the other children in this photo?" Barbara Walters asked dramatically. "Who is the man with them? Is Percy Jackson a delinquent, a terrorist, or perhaps the brainwashed victim of a frightening new cult? When we come back, we chat with a leading child psychologist. Stay tuned, America."**

“A  _ terrorist _ ?” Hazel barks. “He’s a twelve year old terrorist?”

“This is so wrong on so many levels.” Piper hisses, rubbing a hand in between Leo’s shoulder blades. 

**"C'mon," Grover told me. He hauled me away before I could punch a hole in the appliance-store window.**

“We all need a Grover.” Nico sighs, his eyes closed. 

“Do we?” Reyna grits her teeth, as Frank holds her back from destroying something. 

**It got dark, and hungry-looking characters started coming out on the streets to play. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a New Yorker. I don't scare easy. But L.A. had a totally different feel from New York. Back home, everything seemed close. It didn't matter how big the city was, you could get anywhere without getting lost. The street pattern and the subway made sense. There was a system to how things worked. A kid could be safe as long as he wasn't stupid.**

“Is he saying that New York is  _ simple _ ?” Jason questions. 

Hazel shrugs. “I mean… it’s not  _ terrible… _ ” She defends, her cheeks tinging pink. “It’s not as bad as some people make it out to be…”

**L.A. wasn't like that. It was spread out, chaotic, hard to move around. It reminded me of Ares. It wasn't enough for L.A. to be big; it had to prove it was big by being loud and strange and difficult to navigate, too. I didn't know how we were ever going to find the entrance to the Underworld by tomorrow, the summer solstice.**

“Imagine telling this kid that he would one day live in LA.” Leo whispers. 

“Don’t bring that up around Percy.” Annabeth warns. “I’m pretty sure he would legitimately drop out if he realized where New Rome was.”

**We walked past gangbangers, bums, and street hawkers, who looked at us like they were trying to figure if we were worth the trouble of mugging.**

**As we hurried passed the entrance of an alley, a voice from the darkness said, "Hey, you."**

**Like an idiot, I stopped.**

“Oop.” Piper gasps. 

“Uh oh!” Frank groans, running a hand through his hair. 

**Before I knew it, we were surrounded. A gang of kids had circled us. Six of them in all—white kids with expensive clothes and mean faces. Like the kids at YancyAcademy: rich brats playing at being bad boys.**

“White boys.” Hazel grumbles, shaking her head. 

“Aren’t they the worst?” Jason asks disapprovingly. 

**Instinctively, I uncapped Riptide.**

**When the sword appeared out of nowhere, the kids backed off, but their leader was either really stupid or really brave, because he kept coming at me with a switchblade.**

“I’m gonna go with stupid.” Reyna whispers, still looking like she wanted to punch someone. 

**I made the mistake of swinging.**

**The kid yelped. But he must've been one hundred percent mortal, because the blade passed harmlessly right through his chest. He looked down. "What the ..."**

**I figured I had about three seconds before his shock turned to anger. "Run!" I screamed at Annabeth and Grover.**

“That’s always a good plan.” Nico agrees. 

Leo nods. “It’s saved me many times.”

**We pushed two kids out of the way and raced down the street, not knowing where we were going. We turned a sharp corner.**

**"There!" Annabeth shouted.**

**Only one store on the block looked open, its windows glaring with neon. The sign above the door said something like CRSTUY'S WATRE BDE ALPACE.**

Frank leans forward. “Crusty’s Water Bed Palace!” He exclaims, while snapping his fingers. 

**"Crusty's WaterBedPalace?" Grover translated.**

“Damn! That was fast!” Piper congratulates. 

Frank actually looks smug. “Not my first word jumble.”

**It didn't sound like a place I'd ever go except in an emergency, but this definitely qualified.**

**We burst through the doors, ran behind a water bed, and ducked. A split second later, the gang kids ran past outside.**

“Why is it always rich white kids in gangs?” Hazel groans, rolling her eyes. 

**"I think we lost them," Grover panted.**

**A voice behind us boomed, "Lost who?"**

**We all jumped.**

“Not again!” Leo yells. “Why can’t anything ever be good for long? I’m so tired, but too invested to stop now!”

**Standing behind us was a guy who looked like a raptor in a leisure suit. He was at least seven feet tall, with absolutely no hair. He had gray, leathery skin, thick-lidded eyes, and a cold, reptilian smile. He moved toward us slowly, but I got the feeling he could move fast if he needed to.**

**His suit might've come from the Lotus Casino. It belonged back in the seventies, big-time. The shirt was silk paisley, unbuttoned halfway down his hairless chest. The lapels on his velvet jacket were as wide as landing strips. The silver chains around his neck—I couldn't even count them.**

“And I thought  _ Charon _ was bad.” Nico comments, rubbing his eyes with his palm. 

**"I'm Crusty," he said, with a tartar-yellow smile.**

“Yes, you are.” Piper whispers, her face twisted up in disgust. 

**I resisted the urge to say, Yes, you are.**

“So he  _ does  _ have a filter!” Reyna exclaims, eyes lit up. 

**"Sorry to barge in," I told him. "We were just, um, browsing."**

**"You mean hiding from those no-good kids," he grumbled. "They hang around every night. I get a lot of people in here, thanks to them. Say, you want to look at a water bed?"**

“Notice how he doesn’t say, ‘he gets a lot of  _ business _ ’.” Frank observes, his leg shaking so hard that he ends up moving even Piper’s leg.

“Why is your anxiousness contagious?” Leo groans, his own leg moving up and down as well. 

**I was about to say No, thanks, when he put a huge paw on my shoulder and steered me deeper into the showroom.**

**There was every kind of water bed you could imagine: different kinds of wood, different patterns of sheets; queen-size, king-size, emperor-of-the-universe-size.**

**"This is my most popular model." Crusty spread his hands proudly over a bed covered with black satin sheets, with built-in Lava Lamps on the headboard. The mattress vibrated, so it looked like oil-flavored Jell-O.**

“Ew.” Piper says in disgust, her face wrinkling. “Couldn’t he describe things… not so graphically?”

**"Million-hand massage," Crusty told us. "Go on, try it out. Shoot, take a nap. I don't care. No business today, any-way.**

“This is going to turn out so badly,” Nico predicts. 

“Is that even in question at this point?” Jason asks, sounding as tired as he looked. 

**"Um," I said, "I don't think ..."**

**"Million-hand massage!" Grover cried, and dove in. "Oh, you guys! This is cool."**

“Oh, sweetheart.” Piper sighs, pressing a hand to her heart. 

“Poor baby.” Frank agrees with her, copying her movements. 

**"Hmm," Crusty said, stroking his leathery chin. "Almost, almost."**

**"Almost what?" I asked.**

“Ditto!” Hazel cries, raising her pointer finger. 

**He looked at Annabeth. "Do me a favor and try this one over here, honey. Might fit."**

**Annabeth said, "But what—"**

**He patted her reassuringly on the shoulder and led her over to the Safari Deluxe model with teakwood lions carved into the frame and a leopard-patterned comforter. When Annabeth didn't want to lie down, Crusty pushed her.**

“Um… no!” Reyna protests, shaking her head. “No, no, nope! He just made my list!” The list in question is far too long for me to repeat. And there are quite a few vulgar words on it too. 

**"Hey!" she protested.**

**Crusty snapped his fingers. "Ergo!"**

**Ropes sprang from the sides of the bed, lashing around Annabeth, holding her to the mattress.**

“What?” Leo squeaks. “How-  _ What _ ?”

“I wish I wasn’t always right.” Nico sighs, shaking his head. 

**Grover tried to get up, but ropes sprang from his black-satin bed, too, and lashed him down.**

**"N-not c-c-cool!" he yelled, his voice vibrating from the million-hand massage. "N-not c-cool a-at all!"**

“Not Grover, too!” Piper groans, her nose twitching in annoyance. Something that only happened in the bitter, chilly cold. 

**The giant looked at Annabeth, then turned toward me and grinned. "Almost, darn it."**

**I tried to step away, but his hand shot out and clamped around the back of my neck. "Whoa, kid. Don't worry. We'll find you one in a sec."**

“Nope!” Frank says, popping the p. 

**"Let my friends go."**

**"Oh, sure I will. But I got to make them fit, first."**

“That’s something that only evil people say!” Piper declares. “Like seamstresses.”

**"What do you mean?"**

**"All the beds are exactly six feet, see? Your friends are too short. Got to make them fit."**

“Oh no.” Reyna sighs under her breath. “I know this story.”

“Percy told it to you, too?” Leo asks in confusion. 

**Annabeth and Grover kept struggling.**

**"Can't stand imperfect measurements," Crusty muttered. "Ergo!"**

**A new set of ropes leaped out from the top and bottom of the beds, wrapping around Grover and Annabeth's ankles, then around their armpits. The ropes started tightening, pulling my friends from both ends.**

“Oh gosh!” Hazel gasps. “He actually did tell me about this one.”

“Why am I the only one left out of this story time?” Leo grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest. 

**"Don't worry," Crusty told me, "These are stretching jobs. Maybe three extra inches on their spines. They might even live. Now why don't we find a bed you like, huh?"**

**"Percy!" Grover yelled.**

**My mind was racing. I knew I couldn't take on this giant water-bed salesman alone. He would snap my neck before I ever got my sword out.**

“That’s so sad that he knows that.” Piper sighs. 

“Yeah!” Reyna agrees. “Kids should only know about snapping necks from Arrow rewatches! Not from an emotionally unstable and dangerous  _ reality _ .”

**"Your real name's not Crusty, is it?" I asked.**

**"Legally, it's Procrustes," he admitted.**

“Procrustes?” Leo asks. 

“A giant child of Poseidon that stretched people.” Frank informs him. 

**"The Stretcher," I said. I remembered the story: the giant who'd tried to kill Theseus with excess hospitality on his way to Athens.**

**"Yeah," the salesman said. "But who can pronounce Procrustes? Bad for business. Now 'Crusty,' anybody can say that."**

“But who  _ wants  _ to say that?” Jason asks. 

“And why are all of Percy’s siblings assholes? Except for Tyson, of course.” Hazel adds. “Like…  _ all  _ of them!”

“I don’t know…” Annabeth shrugs. “The Golden Fleece wasn’t all that bad.”

**"You're right. It's got a good ring to it."**

**His eyes lit up. "You think so?"**

**"Oh, absolutely," I said. "And the workmanship on these beds? Fabulous!"**

“Um… Huh…?” Piper questions. “I am  _ confused _ , bitch.”

**He grinned hugely, but his fingers didn't loosen on my neck. "I tell my customers that. Every time. Nobody bothers to look at the workmanship. How many built-in Lava Lamp headboards have you seen?"**

“None, because they’re tacky as fuck.” Reyna whispers, leaning her head back, until she’s staring at the ceiling. 

**"Not too many."**

**"That's right!"**

**"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "What are you doing?"**

“That’s the question on everybody’s minds!” Leo says in a mock commercial voice over tone. 

**"Don't mind her," I told Procrustes. "She's impossible."**

Annabeth shakes her head, and opens her eyes wide enough to narrow them. “Bitch.” She whispers. 

**The giant laughed. "All my customers are. Never six feet exactly. So inconsiderate. And then they complain about the fitting."**

**"What do you do if they're longer than six feet?"**

**"Oh, that happens all the time. It's a simple fix."**

“Really?  _ All the time _ ?” Frank asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“Sounds fake to me!” Piper agrees, and high-fives him over Leo. 

**He let go of my neck, but before I could react, he reached behind a nearby sales desk and brought out a huge double-bladed brass axe. He said, "I just center the subject as best I can and lop off whatever hangs over on either end."**

**"Ah," I said, swallowing hard. "Sensible."**

“I wanna call my sister, and just tell her that I love her.” Jason whispers. 

“And I wanna call my-“ Frank stops himself. “Actually, pretty much everyone I love is in this car…” 

**"I'm so glad to come across an intelligent customer!"**

**The ropes were really stretching my friends now. Annabeth was turning pale. Grover made gurgling sounds, like a strangled goose.**

“Poor thing!” Piper sighs. 

Annabeth turns to face one of her best friends. 

“And you  _ too _ , obviously…” Piper says slowly. 

“Nice save!” Leo whisper yells, and gives her a subtle thumbs up. 

**"So, Crusty ..." I said, trying to keep my voice light. I glanced at the sales tag on the valentine-shaped Honeymoon Special. "Does this one really have dynamic stabilizers to stop wave motion?"**

**"Absolutely. Try it out."**

**"Yeah, maybe I will. But would it work even for a big guy like you? No waves at all?"**

“Oh! Now I see his game.” Frank exclaims. 

“Well… yeah! It’s not-quite-murder-but-murder 101.” Nico shrugs. 

**"Guaranteed."**

**"No way."**

**"Way."**

**"Show me."**

“Show him!” Reyna urges. “Let him lob off whatever hangs off!”

“Wait!  _ That  _ is what he’s planning to do?” Leo asks, eyes wide, and mouth agape. 

**He sat down eagerly on the bed, patted the mattress. "No waves. See?"**

**I snapped my fingers. "Ergo."**

**Ropes lashed around Crusty and flattened him against the mattress.**

“Whoop!” Hazel cries. “Wait… should I feel this happy for what I know is going to happen next-?”

**"Hey!" he yelled.**

**"Center him just right," I said.**

**The ropes readjusted themselves at my command. Crusty's whole head stuck out the top. His feet stuck out the bottom.**

Jason bites at his bottom lip, furrowing his eyebrows. “I’m scared.” He whispers to Hazel. 

“Man up!” She encourages, rubbing his shoulder. 

**"No!" he said. "Wait! This is just a demo."**

**I uncapped Riptide. "A few simple adjustments ..."**

**I had no qualms about what I was about to do. If Crusty were human, I couldn't hurt him anyway. If he was a monster, he deserved to turn into dust for a while.**

“Is he a monster, or a demigod?” Leo questions. 

Piper shakes her head. “I don’t know. And, frankly, I don’t really want to know. Percy is kind of scaring me right now.”

**"You drive a hard bargain," he told me. "I'll give you thirty percent off on selected floor models.'"**

**"I think I'll start with the top." I raised my sword.**

Frank hurriedly taps his fingers against his thigh. He blinks hard, knocking shoulders with Leo and Reyna. 

**"No money down! No interest for six months!"**

**I swung the sword. Crusty stopped making offers.**

“Are you not gonna comment on the whole Crusty thing?” Nico asks Annabeth. 

“You know what, even now, I’m still cursing him for taking so damn long.”

**I cut the ropes on the other beds. Annabeth and Grover got to their feet, groaning and wincing and cursing me a lot.**

**"You look taller," I said.**

Hazel face palms, trying her best not to snort with the kind of bitter Annabeth and slightly scared people all around her. Plus Nico and Reyna. 

**"Very funny," Annabeth said. "Be faster next time."**

**I looked at the bulletin board behind Crusty's sales desk. There was an advertisement for Hermes Delivery Service, and another for the All-New Compendium of L.A. Area Monsters—"The only Monstrous Yellow Pages you'll ever need!" Under that, a bright orange flier for DOA Recording Studios, offering commissions for heroes' souls. "We are always looking for new talent!" DOA's address was right underneath with a map.**

“Thank the gods that it can’t be found in any place where people might actually look for it.” Piper breaths. 

“Yup.” Reyna deadpans. “Only a bunch of tweens that were nearly stretched to death.”

**"Come on," I told my friends.**

**"Give us a minute," Grover complained. "We were almost stretched to death.'"**

**"Then you're ready for the Underworld," I said. "It's only a block from here."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not me coming up with a new plot point at the almost end, so adding it now and pretending like it always existed 👁👅👁
> 
> If you haven’t already, maybe check out the new series i am writing. It takes place during HoO, but it’s set ten years after PJO. 
> 
> Bye 😽


	19. Annabeth Does Obedience School

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um... so... it’s been a while...
> 
> I, honestly, didn’t really like a lot that I’ve been writing, recently, which you may have seen if you read my other series. 
> 
> I realize that a lot of the characters may be ooc, and that the continuation probably doesn’t work because I don’t reread things that I write 😅
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!

“Is there some sort of hidden meaning in the fact that the Underworld is in LA?” Jason questions. 

“Not that hidden.” Piper admits. 

**We stood in the shadows of Valencia Boulevard, looking up at gold letters etched in black marble: DOA RECORDING STUDIOS.**

**Underneath, stenciled on the glass doors: NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING.**

“What about the _will_ to live?” Leo asks. “Cause I think I lost that a while ago.”

Frank wraps his arms around the younger boy. “I love you.” He whispers into his hair. 

“Stop it. Love and affection makes me uncomfortable.” Nico says sarcastically. 

**It was almost midnight, but the lobby was brightly lit and full of people. Behind the security desk sat a tough-looking guard with sunglasses and an earpiece.**

Nico and Hazel share a knowing look, their eyebrows raising. 

**I turned to my friends. "Okay. You remember the plan."**

**"The plan," Grover gulped. "Yeah. I love the plan."**

“I’m already scared of the plan.” Piper admits, pressing her cheek to the window. 

**Annabeth said, "What happens if the plan doesn't work?"**

**"Don't think negative."**

**"Right," she said. "We're entering the Land of the Dead, and I shouldn't think negative."**

“It’s not as bad as you think.” Hazel mutters. 

“Really?” Jason asks her. 

“No. There’s a reason only dead people go there.”

**I took the pearls out of my pocket, the three milky spheres the Nereid had given me in Santa Monica. They didn't seem like much of a backup in case something went wrong.**

**Annabeth put her hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Percy. You're right, we'll make it. It'll be fine."**

“Aww,” Reyna says teasingly. “Someone is crushing.”

“Ew! No!” Annabeth huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. “He’s gross.”

Frank furrows his eyebrows at her, confusion on his face. “But… aren’t you dating now…”

“Oh, shut up.” She grumbles. 

**She gave Grover a nudge.**

**"Oh, right!" he chimed in. "We got this far. We'll find the master bolt and save your mom. No problem."**

“I love him.” Piper exclaims. 

“We’re aware.” Nico informs her.

“You can’t be sick of it yet, we still have way more chapters that need to be filled with idle talk!”

“What?”

“I don’t really know.”

**I looked at them both, and felt really grateful. Only a few minutes before, I'd almost gotten them stretched to death on deluxe water beds, and now they were trying to be brave for my sake, trying to make me feel better.**

**I slipped the pearls back in my pocket. "Let's whup some Underworld butt."**

“How inspiring.” Reyna deadpans. 

**We walked inside the DOA lobby.**

**Muzak played softly on hidden speakers. The carpet and walls were steel gray. Pencil cactuses grew in the corners like skeleton hands. The furniture was black leather, and every seat was taken. There were people sitting on couches, people standing up, people staring out the windows or waiting for the elevator. Nobody moved, or talked, or did much of anything. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see them all just fine, but if I focused on any one of them in particular, they started looking ... transparent. I could see right through their bodies.**

“So… in LA there is a place filled with ghosts and nic furniture?” Leo asks. 

“You could be talking about a _lot_ of places in LA.” Piper murmurs, shaking her head. 

**The security guard's desk was a raised podium, so we had to look up at him.**

**He was tall and elegant, with chocolate-colored skin and bleached-blond hair shaved military style. He wore tortoiseshell shades and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag.**

“He lost me at the tortoise shell…” Frank shudders, gripping his biceps. 

“They’re not _real_ tortoise shells.” Jason says. 

“And if he described them as blonde boy shades… what would you say, then?” Frank says, sounding far more bitter than I have allowed him to be in this whole book. 

**I read the name tag, then looked at him in bewilderment. "Your name is Chiron?"**

Nico winces, knowing what was going to come next. 

**He leaned across the desk. I couldn't see anything in his glasses except my own reflection, but his smile was sweet and cold, like a pythons, right before it eats you.**

Frank shakes his head, offended. 

**"What a precious young lad." He had a strange accent—British, maybe, but also as if he had learned English as a second language. "Tell me, mate, do I look like a centaur?"**

“I don’t know. He didn’t describe his lower half.” Leo shrugs, leaning his head on Piper’s shoulder. 

**"N-no."**

**"Sir," he added smoothly.**

**"Sir," I said.**

“I really thought that that was gonna take a turn for the Half Blood Prince.” Hazel whispers, crossing her legs on the seat bench. 

**He pinched the name tag and ran his finger under the letters. "Can you read this, mate? It says C-H-A-R-O-N. Say it with me: CARE-ON."**

**"Charon."**

“The skeleton dude?” Reyna asks, her voice soft as her face presses into the line of her seatbelt. 

“Yes…” Jason says softly. “Sleep… for now…”

**"Amazing! Now: Mr. Charon."**

**"Mr. Charon," I said.**

**"Well done." He sat back. "I hate being confused with that old horse-man. And now, how may I help you little dead ones?"**

Annabeth presses her lips together and shakes her head at the unflattering description of her long term father figure. 

**His question caught in my stomach like a fastball. I looked at Annabeth for support.**

**"We want to go the Underworld," she said.**

“Said no one, ever.” Hazel grumbles under her breath, leaning her head on Nico’s shoulder. He pats down her curls in a show of comfort. 

**Charon's mouth twitched. "Well, that's refreshing."**

**"It is?" she asked.**

**"Straightforward and honest. No screaming. No 'There must be a mistake, Mr. Charon.'" He looked us over. "How did you die, then?"**

“This is going to be interesting.” Reyna predicts, her voice groggy. 

I’m sure they have a well thought out explanation.” Leo says, upbeat. 

**I nudged Grover.**

**"Oh," he said. "Um ... drowned ... in the bathtub."**

Piper raises an eyebrow at her friend. “Let him finish, first.” He says, though his shoulders do sag a little. 

**"All three of you?" Charon asked. We nodded.**

“And I officially have lost hope.” Leo sighs, gently closing his eyes. 

“He’s gonna see through this, right?” Frank questions, leaning his head on Leo’s. 

**"Big bathtub." Charon looked mildly impressed. "I don't suppose you have coins for passage. Normally, with adults, you see, I could charge your American Express, or add the ferry price to your last cable bill. But with children ... alas, you never die prepared. Suppose you'll have to take a seat for a few centuries."**

“This hurt my soul.” Nico whispers. “And I honestly didn’t think that that was possible.”

**"Oh, but we have coins." I set three golden drachmas on the counter, part of the stash I'd found in Crusty's office desk.**

“Why does he keep robbing the people that he kills?” Jason questions. 

“Why do all of the monsters they keep fighting have successful businesses?” Hazel asks. “It’s a whole conspiracy.”

**"Well, now ..." Charon moistened his lips. "Real drachmas. Real golden drachmas. I haven't seen these in ..."**

**His fingers hovered greedily over the coins.**

**We were so close.**

“Which means that something bad is going to happen.” Reyna sighs, her eyes shut tightly so that she could sleep. Or block out her life troubles. They are pretty much one in the same.

**Then Charon looked at me. That cold stare behind his glasses seemed to bore a hole through my chest. "Here now," he said. "You couldn't read my name correctly. Are you dyslexic, lad?"**

**"No," I said. "I'm dead."**

“Uh oh.” Frank sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

**Charon leaned forward and took a sniff. "You're not dead. I should've known. You're a godling."**

“I’m surprised it took him that long.” Nico murmurs. “The first time he met _me_ he already knew.”

“Impressive.” Leo comments. 

**"We have to get to the Underworld," I insisted.**

**Charon made a growling sound deep in his throat.**

**Immediately, all the people in the waiting room got up and started pacing, agitated, lighting cigarettes, running hands through their hair, or checking their wristwatches.**

Piper runs a hand through her own hair, a shiver running down her spine. She rubs at the skin of her thigh so hard that it burns. 

**"Leave while you can," Charon told us. "I'll just take these and forget I saw you."**

Reyna snorts, sitting up. She seemed to be well past the point of trying to pretend to sleep. 

**He started to go for the coins, but I snatched them back.**

**"No service, no tip." I tried to sound braver than I felt.**

“Isn’t that what we all strive for?” Leo questions, rubbing at his chin. 

Jason’s eyes widen. “Wait! So all those times you installed me with confidence by your casual indifference was a lie?”

Leo blinks a few times. “...No…”

The blonde boy lets out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank the gods!”

**Charon growled again—a deep, blood-chilling sound. The spirits of the dead started pounding on the elevator doors.**

**"It's a shame, too," I sighed. "We had more to offer."**

**I held up the entire bag from Crusty's stash. I took out a fistful of drachmas and let the coins spill through my fingers.**

“Ah,” Hazel sighs. “Bribery. The oldest trick in the book.”

Nico shakes his head. “Whatever happened to a good, old fashioned, breaking and entering?”

**Charon's growl changed into something more like a lion's purr. "Do you think I can be bought, godling? Eh ... just out of curiosity, how much have you got there?"**

“It sounds like he very much _can_ be bought.” Frank murmurs, nodding his head. 

**"A lot," I said. "I bet Hades doesn't pay you well enough for such hard work."**

**"Oh, you don't know the half of it. How would you like to babysit these spirits all day? Always 'Please don't let me be dead' or 'Please let me across for free.' I haven't had a pay raise in three thousand years. Do you imagine suits like this come cheap?"**

**"You deserve better," I agreed. "A little appreciation. Respect. Good pay."**

“Well… if one of my workers could be bribed by a twelve year old, I think I give him _enough_ respect.” Piper whispers, 

Reyna snorts, pressing a hand to her mouth. 

**With each word, I stacked another gold coin on the counter.**

**Charon glanced down at his silk Italian jacket, as if imagining himself in something even better. "I must say, lad, you're making some sense now. Just a little."**

“Talk about a diva.” Leo mutters. 

“Hey!” Hazel cries. “Nah, you’re right. And this is a _flattering_ description of him.”

**I stacked another few coins. "I could mention a pay raise while I'm talking to Hades."**

**He sighed. "The boat's almost full, anyway. I might as well add you three and be off."**

“So… does that mean he _isn’t_ gonna take the money?” Jason asks. 

**He stood, scooped up our money, and said, "Come along."**

“Okay, didn’t have to wait long for _that_ answer.” He mutters, tapping his fingers against the wheel. 

**We pushed through the crowd of waiting spirits, who started grabbing at our clothes like the wind, their voices whispering things I couldn't make out. Charon shoved them out of the way, grumbling, "Freeloaders."**

**He escorted us into the elevator, which was already crowded with souls of the dead, each one holding a green boarding pass. Charon grabbed two spirits who were trying to get on with us and pushed them back into the lobby.**

Hazel wrinkles her nose, crossing her arms over her chest. Nico wraps an arm around her shoulders.

**"Right. Now, no one get any ideas while I'm gone," he announced to the waiting room. "And if anyone moves the dial off my easy-listening station again, I'll make sure you're here for another thousand years. Understand?"**

“He seems like a nice guy.” Frank murmurs in that passive aggressive voice he sometimes takes on instead of being sarcastic. 

**He shut the doors. He put a key card into a slot in the elevator panel and we started to descend.**

**"What happens to the spirits waiting in the lobby?" Annabeth asked.**

**"Nothing," Charon said.**

Reyna grabs her frappe, wrapping her lips around the straw. The sound of her drinking was all that filled the car as they listened intently. 

**"For how long?"**

**"Forever, or until I'm feeling generous."**

“That’s fair.” Piper comments, gently shaking her head. 

**"Oh," she said. "That's ... fair."**

“Oop! Bestie things!” The girl laughs, raising her eyebrows, and flashing a peace sign. 

Annabeth snores in response. 

Leo furrows his eyebrows. “When did _she_ fall asleep?” 

Idk. Seems like lazy writing to me -_-. 

**Charon raised an eyebrow. "Whoever said death was fair, young miss? Wait until it's your turn. You'll die soon enough, where you're going."**

**"We'll get out alive," I said.**

“I mean, I know that they live, and even _I’m_ feeling pretty pessimistic.” Nico murmurs. 

“You’re always pessimistic.” Reyna informs him. 

“It’s part of my aesthetic.”

**"Ha."**

**I got a sudden dizzy feeling. We weren't going down anymore, but forward. The air turned misty. Spirits around me started changing shape. Their modern clothes flickered, turning into gray hooded robes. The floor of the elevator began swaying.**

**I blinked hard. When I opened my eyes, Charon's creamy Italian suit had been replaced by a long black robe. His tortoiseshell glasses were gone. Where his eyes should've been were empty sockets—like Ares's eyes, except Charon's were totally dark, full of night and death and despair.**

“Me!” Nico exclaims. Everyone raises an eyebrow at him. “What? At least _I’m_ willing to admit it.”

**He saw me looking, and said, "Well?"**

**"Nothing," I managed.**

**I thought he was grinning, but that wasn't it. The flesh of his face was becoming transparent, letting me see straight through to his skull.**

Frank presses his lips together. “I want a hug.”

“Bring it in, big guy!” Leo says, opening his arms. 

Frank crushes the smaller boy to his chest. Literally crushes him. I think I heard something crack. 

**The floor kept swaying.**

**Grover said, "I think I'm getting seasick."**

“Poor thing.” Piper pouts, clenching her stomach in sympathy. 

**When I blinked again, the elevator wasn't an elevator anymore. We were standing in a wooden barge. Charon was poling us across a dark, oily river, swirling with bones, dead fish, and other, stranger things—plastic dolls, crushed carnations, soggy diplomas with gilt edges.**

“I really wish we hadn’t just ate.” Jason whispers, lightly shaking his head. 

**"The River Styx," Annabeth murmured. "It's so ..."**

**"Polluted," Charon said. "For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across—hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me."**

“The nonliving matter too!” Hazel says, snapping. “That’s a real slogan down there.”

**Mist curled off the filthy water. Above us, almost lost in the gloom, was a ceiling of stalactites. Ahead, the far shore glimmered with greenish light, the color of poison.**

**Panic closed up my throat. What was I doing here? These people around me ... they were dead.**

“Never would’ve noticed.” Reyna deadpans, taking another sip of her drink. 

**Annabeth grabbed hold of my hand. Under normal circumstances, this would've embarrassed me, but I understood how she felt. She wanted reassurance that somebody else was alive on this boat.**

Piper bites her lip, lightly bouncing in her seat. 

Hazel allows a big smile to cross her face. 

“Oh, shut up.” Annabeth groans, rubbing her cheek against her seatbelt. 

**I found myself muttering a prayer, though I wasn't quite sure who I was praying to. Down here, only one god mattered, and he was the one I had come to confront.**

**The shoreline of the Underworld came into view. Craggy rocks and black volcanic sand stretched inland about a hundred yards to the base of a high stone wall, which marched off in either direction as far as we could see. A sound came from somewhere nearby in the green gloom, echoing off the stones—the howl of a large animal.**

“That doesn’t sound foreboding at all.” Leo mutters, gripping Frank’s hand for support. The other boy’s easily enveloped his own, but it was reassuring in a way. 

  
  
  


**"Old Three-Face is hungry," Charon said. His smile turned skeletal in the greenish light. "Bad luck for you, godlings."**

“But…” Jason says slowly. “I thought he just said that his smile _was_ skeletal…”

Nico shrugs. “He obviously recorded these at different times. You can hear him swallowing his food in between words. 

**The bottom of our boat slid onto the black sand. The dead began to disembark. A woman holding a little girl's hand. An old man and an old woman hobbling along arm in arm. A boy no older than I was, shuffling silently along in his gray robe.**

Hazel furrows her eyebrows, her eyes shifting from side to side. “Hmm…” she hums. 

**Charon said, "I'd wish you luck, mate, but there isn't any down here. Mind you, don't forget to mention my pay raise."**

**He counted our golden coins into his pouch, then took up his pole. He warbled something that sounded like a Barry Manilow song as he ferried the empty barge back across the river.**

“Who?” Piper asks. 

“I don’t know.” Leo responds, shrugging his shoulders. 

**We followed the spirits up a well-worn path.**

**I'm not sure what I was expecting—Pearly Gates, or a big black portcullis, or something. But the entrance to the Underworld looked like a cross between airport security and the Jersey Turnpike.**

“And he only almost got killed at one of those places.” Annabeth murmurs, gingerly lifting her head to give a tired smile to the radio. 

**There were three separate entrances under one huge black archway that said YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. Beyond this were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls like Charon.**

“Who knew it was so difficult to get into the underworld?” Reyna murmurs, and thensays exasperated, “Besides the death twins!”

Nico and Hazel, who were both about to raise their hands, slowly lower them while grumbling. 

**The howling of the hungry animal was really loud now, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. The three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was supposed to guard Hades's door, was nowhere to be seen.**

**The dead queued up in the three lines, two marked ATTENDANT ON DUTY, and one marked EZ DEATH. The EZ DEATH line was moving right along. The other two were crawling.**

“Talk about eternal torture.” Jason sighs, looking up at the E-Z pass sign that they were driving under. 

**"What do you figure?" I asked Annabeth.**

**"The fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields," she said. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from the court, because it might go against them."**

“That’s what me and my mom did.” Hazel comments, looking up at the ceiling. 

It got depressingly quiet after that.

**"There's a court for dead people?"**

**"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare—people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward—the Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."**

“Why should Thomas Jefferson get to decide who lived a good life?” Piper questions, indignantly crossing her arms over her chest. 

“Well, he did have some good songs in Hamilton.” Frank shrugs. 

“That wasn’t actually Jefferson.” Leo tells him. 

Frank narrows his eyes, before his mouth drops and his shoulders fall. “Oh, right!”

**"And do what?"**

**Grover said, "Imagine standing in a wheat field in Kansas. Forever."**

Hazel bites her lip. Nico wraps an arm around her, and Frank places a reassuring hand on her shoulder. 

**"Harsh," I said.**

**"Not as harsh as that," Grover muttered. "Look."**

**A couple of black-robbed ghouls had pulled aside one spirit and were frisking him at the security desk. The face of the dead man looked vaguely familiar.**

“Gabe!” Reyna asks, practically jumping out of her seat. 

**"He's that preacher who made the news, remember?" Grover asked.**

The girl’s face falls. “Oh.” She murmurs. 

**"Oh, yeah." I did remember now. We'd seen him on TV a couple of times at the YancyAcademy dorm. He was this annoying televangelist from upstate New York who'd raised millions of dollars for orphanages and then got caught spending the money on stuff for his mansion, like gold-plated toilet seats, and an indoor putt-putt golf course. He'd died in a police chase when his "Lamborghini for the Lord" went off a cliff.**

“That’s honestly better than what I always assumed.” Annabeth whispers, rubbing her chin. 

**I said, "What're they doing to him?"**

**"Special punishment from Hades," Grover guessed. "The really bad people get his personal attention as soon as they arrive. The Fur—the Kindly Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."**

“I think I’d make a good kindly one.” Nico murmurs. 

“You scare me.” Leo says. 

“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Thank you.”

**The thought of the Furies made me shudder. I realized I was in their home territory now. Old Mrs. Dodds would be licking her lips with anticipation.**

**"But if he's a preacher," I said, "and he believes in a different hell... ."**

“That’s… a really good point…” Jason says slowly. “How does that _work_?”

“I don’t know.” Piper says. “Why do you keep asking questions we don’t know the answers to? Some things are unexplainable.”

**Grover shrugged. "Who says he's seeing this place the way we're seeing it? Humans see what they want to see. You're very stubborn—er, persistent, that way."**

“Aw, he’s trying to spare our feelings by putting a different connotation on our flaws.” Frank coos, his lips turning upwards at the corners. 

**We got closer to the gates. The howling was so loud now it shook the ground at my feet, but I still couldn't figure out where it was coming from.**

**Then, about fifty feet in front of us, the green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous shadowy monster.**

Hazel shudders. Annabeth looks kind of misty eyed. Nico was sipping at his now cooled down drink. Seriously. Why order it hot if you can’t handle the heat?

**I hadn't seen it before because it was half transparent, like the dead. Until it moved, it blended with whatever was behind it. Only its eyes and teeth looked solid. And it was staring straight at me.**

**My jaw hung open. All I could think to say was, "He's a Rottweiler."**

Reyna leans forward. “Ooh! What kind?” Leo raises an eyebrow at her. “What? Is it a crime to love dogs?”

**I'd always imagined Cerberus as a big black mastiff. But he was obviously a purebred Rottweiler, except of course that he was twice the size of a woolly mammoth, mostly invisible, and had three heads.**

**The dead walked right up to him—no fear at all. The ATTENDANT ON DUTY lines parted on either side of him. The EZ DEATH spirits walked right between his front paws and under his belly, which they could do without even crouching.**

“One of the perks of being dead.” Hazel whispers, pawing at the denim of her jeans. 

“I thought _I_ was supposed to be the self deprecating one in this siblingship.” Nico says in mock offense. It got Hazel to crack a smile though, so it was a win. 

**"I'm starting to see him better," I muttered. "Why is that?"**

**"I think ..." Annabeth moistened her lips. "I'm afraid it's because we're getting closer to being dead."**

Present day Annabeth shakes her head. “Poor, naive thing. Doesn’t even know what being close to dead is like…”

The other shift uncomfortably in their seats. Damn, it was getting dark. 

**The dog's middle head craned toward us. It sniffed the air and growled.**

**"It can smell the living," I said.**

**"But that's okay," Grover said, trembling next to me. "Because we have a plan."**

“The more I hear about this plan, the less confident I am with it.” Piper murmurs. 

“That’s what I said!” Annabeth exclaims, still staring out the windshield.

**"Right," Annabeth said. I'd never heard her voice sound quite so small. "A plan."**

**We moved toward the monster.**

“Why does every plan always start with going _towards_ the danger?” Leo groans. “Why can’t it, just once, be running and hiding?”

**The middle head snarled at us, then barked so loud my eyeballs rattled.**

**"Can you understand it?" I asked Grover.**

**"Oh yeah," he said. "I can understand it."**

“I don’t like the way he said that…” Frank says slowly. 

“It doesn’t sound like what he said was pleasant.” Reyna agrees. 

**"What's it saying?"**

**"I don't think humans have a four-letter word that translates, exactly."**

Hazel snorts. “I think we can think of a few.” 

**I took the big stick out of my backpack—a bedpost I'd broken off Crusty's Safari Deluxe floor model. I held it up, and tried to channel happy dog thoughts toward Cerberus—Alpo commercials, cute little puppies, fire hydrants. I tried to smile, like I wasn't about to die.**

“Ahh, it’s been a while since I’ve seen _that_ smile.” Leo sighs, folding his hands over his stomach. 

**"Hey, Big Fella," I called up. "I bet they don't play with you much."**

**"GROWWWLLLL!"**

**"Good boy," I said weakly.**

“They can usually smell fear.” Reyna informs. “It’s probably tripled with the extra heads.”

“Fair.” Nico murmurs, still furrowing his eyebrows at the thick tension in the air. 

**I waved the stick. The dog's middle head followed the movement. The other two heads trained their eyes on me, completely ignoring the spirits. I had Cerberus's undivided attention. I wasn't sure that was a good thing.**

**"Fetch!" I threw the stick into the gloom, a good solid throw. I heard it go ker-sploosh in the River Styx.**

“Don’t add to the problem.” Piper mock disciplines, sadly shaking her head. “It’s polluted enough as it is.”

**Cerberus glared at me, unimpressed. His eyes were baleful and cold.**

**So much for the plan.**

“It wasn’t much of a plan in the first place.” Annabeth sighs. “Not our best moment, to be honest.”

**Cerberus was now making a new kind of growl, deeper down in his three throats.**

**"Um," Grover said. "Percy?"**

“I can already tell this isn’t going to be good.” Hazel murmurs. Every hums or sighs their agreement. 

Nico scrunches his face. “Why am _I_ the most peppy one?”

**"Yeah?"**

**"I just thought you'd want to know."**

**"Yeah?"**

**"Cerberus? He's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that... well ... he's hungry."**

“At least he warned them beforehand.” Reyna observes. 

Frank nods. “Yeah. He seems like a nice guy.”

**"Wait!" Annabeth said. She started rifling through her pack.**

**Uh-oh, I thought.**

“Rude.” The girl huffs. 

Piper shrugs. “I don’t know. If you had anything to do with that ‘plan’, I think that it’s a justified thought.”

**"Five seconds," Grover said. "Do we run now?"**

“They probably should.” Jason urges, moving his head in a forward motion, while still keeping his eyes on the road. 

**Annabeth produced a red rubber ball the size of a grapefruit. It was labeled WATERLAND, DENVER, CO. Before I could stop her, she raised the ball and marched straight up to Cerberus.**

**She shouted, "See the ball? You want the ball, Cerberus? Sit!"**

**Cerberus looked as stunned as we were.**

Everyone in the car looked just as stunned as Percy was saying he was. Hazel raises her eyebrows, and blinks at the blonde. “Bitch…” she says, astonished. 

**All three of his heads cocked sideways. Six nostrils dilated.**

**"Sit!" Annabeth called again.**

**I was sure that any moment she would become the world's largest Milkbone dog biscuit.**

“That’s… an image…” Leo says softly. 

Piper blinks a few times, before groaning and pulling at her hair. “Now I can’t get it out of my head!”

**But instead, Cerberus licked his three sets of lips, shifted on his haunches, and sat, immediately crushing a dozen spirits who'd been passing underneath him in the EZ DEATH line. The spirits made muffled hisses as they dissipated, like the air let out of tires.**

Nico purses his lips. “That’s an interesting description…” 

**Annabeth said, "Good boy!"**

**She threw Cerberus the ball.**

**He caught it in his middle mouth. It was barely big enough for him to chew, and the other heads started snapping at the middle, trying to get the new toy.**

“Aww,” Reyna pouts. “Poor thing. He just wants a toy.”

**"Drop it.'" Annabeth ordered.**

**Cerberus's heads stopped fighting and looked at her. The ball was wedged between two of his teeth like a tiny piece of gum. He made a loud, scary whimper, then dropped the ball, now slimy and bitten nearly in half, at Annabeth's feet.**

Frank makes a face. “That’s the thing about chew toys. They’re so easily messed up.”

“Probably because you chew them.” Leo informs, nodding like an all knowing being.

**"Good boy." She picked up the ball, ignoring the monster spit all over it.**

**She turned toward us. "Go now. EZ DEATH line—it's faster."**

“Seems like a flawed system, but alright.” Piper says slowly. 

Hazel shakes her head. “When do messed up systems ever change if it doesn’t directly affect the people in charge?”

“Good point.” Piper admits softly. 

**I said, "But—"**

**"Now.'" She ordered, in the same tone she was using on the dog.**

**Grover and I inched forward warily.**

Leo snorts. “You trained him well.”

“Thank you!” Annabeth says promptly. 

**Cerberus started to growl.**

**"Stay!" Annabeth ordered the monster. "If you want the ball, stay!"**

**Cerberus whimpered, but he stayed where he was.**

“Good boy.” Reyna says, and she was genuinely smiling. Though, her eyes did look slightly wet. She really did miss her dogs, who she couldn’t take on such a long trip without them suffering. 

**"What about you?" I asked Annabeth as we passed her.**

**"I know what I'm doing, Percy," she muttered. "At least, I'm pretty sure... ."**

“That’s the best we can strive for!” Frank enthuses, giving a tight lipped smile. Even _his_ optimism was starting to wane. 

**Grover and I walked between the monster's legs.**

**Please, Annabeth, I prayed. Don't tell him to sit again.**

Piper bites her lip to stop from giggling or snorting. It was, honestly, pretty difficult. 

**We made it through. Cerberus wasn't any less scary-looking from the back.**

**Annabeth said, "Good dog!"**

“Yes! He deserves it!” Reyna cheers, clapping her hands together. 

“You don’t normally get this worked up for humans.” Leo notices. 

“Only the good ones.” She gives him a sickly sweet smile. 

**She held up the tattered red ball, and probably came to the same conclusion I did—if she rewarded Cerberus, there'd be nothing left for another trick.**

**She threw the ball anyway. The monster's left mouth immediately snatched it up, only to be attacked by the middle head, while the right head moaned in protest.**

**While the monster was distracted, Annabeth walked briskly under its belly and joined us at the metal detector.**

Annabeth looks away, pressing her fingers together, and rubbing at the material of her shirt. A bone in her jaw twitched. 

**"How did you do that?" I asked her, amazed.**

**"Obedience school," she said breathlessly, and I was surprised to see there were tears in her eyes. "When I was little, at my dad's house, we had a Doberman... ."**

“Who knew a story that takes place in the Underworld would make people feel so depressed.” Nico whispers, looking around at the strangely quiet car. 

**"Never mind that," Grover said, tugging at my shirt. "Come on!"**

**We were about to bolt through the EZ DEATH line when Cerberus moaned pitifully from all three mouths. Annabeth stopped.**

**She turned to face the dog, which had done a one-eighty to look at us.**

Reyna looks out the window, pressing her hand to the glass. The window fogged up due to the warmth of her skin and the cold from outside. 

**Cerberus panted expectantly, the tiny red ball in pieces in a puddle of drool at its feet.**

**"Good boy," Annabeth said, but her voice sounded melancholy and uncertain.**

**The monster's heads turned sideways, as if worried about her.**

Hazel presses her forehead to Nico’s shoulder. Her breathing came out soft and even, and she wrapped a hand around his wrist. 

The boy hugs her back, pressing his cheek to the top of her head. 

**"I'll bring you another ball soon," Annabeth promised faintly. "Would you like that?"**

**The monster whimpered. I didn't need to speak dog to know Cerberus was still waiting for the ball.**

**"Good dog. I'll come visit you soon. I—I promise." Annabeth turned to us. "Let's go."**

Annabeth looks down, as if ashamed. She probably hasn’t gone back to give Cerberus a new ball. 

**Grover and I pushed through the metal detector, which immediately screamed and set off flashing red lights. "Unauthorized possessions! Magic detected!"**

“... what kind of magic?” Piper asks softly, her cheeks reddening. It was kind of awkward, trying to come up with theories while everyone else was stuck in their feels. 

**Cerberus started to bark.**

**We burst through the EZ DEATH gate, which started even more alarms blaring, and raced into the Underworld.**

**A few minutes later, we were hiding, out of breath, in the rotten trunk of an immense black tree as security ghouls scuttled past, yelling for backup from the Furies.**

“Sounds gross.” Leo mutters, bringing his knees up to his chest. 

“Agreed.” Frank says, nodding. 

**Grover murmured, "Well, Percy, what have we learned today?"**

**"That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"**

**"No," Grover told me. "We've learned that your plans really, really bite!"**

“And he hasn’t made another one since.” Nico reminisces. “At least I assume. I wasn’t there for this, so I don’t really know.”

**I wasn't sure about that. I thought maybe Annabeth and I had both had the right idea. Even here in the Underworld, everybody—even monsters—needed a little attention once in a while.**

**I thought about that as we waited for the ghouls to pass. I pretended not to see Annabeth wipe a tear from her cheek as she listened to the mournful keening of Cerberus in the distance, longing for his new friend.**

“I didn’t cry.” Annabeth murmurs. “I had something in my eye.”

Leo raises an eyebrow. He must’ve been particularly confident, because he asks, “Tears?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope this didn’t suck 😭


	20. We Find Out The Truth, Sort Of

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s a lot of stuff. There is, again, a LOT in this chapter. So many emotions and traumas that I barely touch upon :)
> 
> ENJOY!

**Imagine the largest concert crowd you've ever seen, a football field packed with a million fans.**

“Done.” Jason announces, gently nodding his head. 

Reyna gently pats his shoulder, nodding along with him. 

**Now imagine a field a million times that big, packed with people, and imagine the electricity has gone out, and there is no noise, no light, no beach ball bouncing around over the crowd. Something tragic has happened backstage. Whispering masses of people are just milling around in the shadows, waiting for a concert that will never start.**

Hazel’s breath catches in her throat. Something dark passes her features, her curls falling into her eyes. “Pretty accurate.” She murmurs, forcing a small smile onto her face. 

**If you can picture that, you have a pretty good idea what the Fields of Asphodel looked like. The black grass had been trampled by eons of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp. Black trees—Grover told me they were poplars—grew in clumps here and there.**

**The cavern ceiling was so high above us it might've been a bank of storm clouds, except for the stalactites, which glowed faint gray and looked wickedly pointed. I tried not to imagine they'd fall on us at any moment, but dotted around the fields were several that had fallen and impaled themselves in the black grass. I guess the dead didn't have to worry about little hazards like being speared by stalactites the size of booster rockets.**

Piper looks out the window, as if nervous that a stalactite might just randomly fall from the sky and jam itself into their car. 

She shudders. “That’s a scary thought.”

**Annabeth, Grover, and I tried to blend into the crowd, keeping an eye out for security ghouls. I couldn't help looking for familiar faces among the spirits of Asphodel, but the dead are hard to look at. Their faces shimmer. They all look slightly angry or confused. They will come up to you and speak, but their voices sound like chatter, like bats twittering. Once they realize you can't understand them, they frown and move away.**

**The dead aren't scary. They're just sad.**

“Like teenagers!” Leo says enthusiastically. “Except, sometimes we’re a little scary too.”

“You are a visionary.” Frank informs him.

**We crept along, following the line of new arrivals that snaked from the main gates toward a black-tented pavilion with a banner that read:**

**JUDGMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION**

**Welcome, Newly Deceased!**

“The Underworld has the same type of welcoming committee as Freshman orientation…” Piper says softly. “That’s nice to know.”

**Out the back of the tent came two much smaller lines.**

**To the left, spirits flanked by security ghouls were marched down a rocky path toward the Fields of Punishment, which glowed and smoked in the distance, a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and miles of barbed wire separating the different torture areas. Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music. I could just make out a tiny hill, with the ant-size figure of Sisyphus struggling to move his boulder to the top. And I saw worse tortures, too—things I don't want to describe.**

Reyna shivers, her face squished up. “Opera music.” 

**The line coming from the right side of the judgment pavilion was much better. This one led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls—a gated community, which seemed to be the only happy part of the Underworld. Beyond the security gate were neighborhoods of beautiful houses from every time period in history, Roman villas and medieval castles and Victorian mansions. Silver and gold flowers bloomed on the lawns. The grass rippled in rainbow colors. I could hear laughter and smell barbecue cooking.**

“That sounds beautiful.” Jason whispers. “And homey.”

“It sounds really nice.” Hazel agrees, a sad, small smile resting upon her face. 

**Elysium.**

**In the middle of that valley was a glittering blue lake, with three small islands like a vacation resort in the Bahamas. The Isles of the Blest, for people who had chosen to be reborn three times, and three times achieved Elysium. Immediately I knew that's where I wanted to go when I died.**

“That’s a pretty big decision for a twelve year old.” Frank says softly.

“I don’t know. I’ve considered it a time or two when I thought I was about to die.” Leo whispers, pinching the fabric of his jeans in between his fingers. 

**"That's what it's all about," Annabeth said, like she was reading my thoughts. "That's the place for heroes."**

**But I thought of how few people there were in Elysium, how tiny it was compared to the Fields of Asphodel or even the Fields of Punishment. So few people did good in their lives. It was depressing.**

“Way to share that with the rest of us.” Reyna grumbles, pressing a hand to her temple. “I was so close to being happy. Kind of.”

**We left the judgment pavilion and moved deeper into the Asphodel Fields. It got darker. The colors faded from our clothes. The crowds of chattering spirits began to thin.**

**After a few miles of walking, we began to hear a familiar screech in the distance. Looming on the horizon was a palace of glittering black obsidian. Above the parapets swirled three dark batlike creatures: the Furies. I got the feeling they were waiting for us.**

“Huh.” Piper murmurs. “Don’t they have better things to do than wait for twelve year olds?”

“The living feel pain that the dead never could.” Nico replies, scratching the back of his neck. 

“Great. Now I’m confused  _ and  _ sad.”

**"I suppose it's too late to turn back," Grover said wistfully.**

**"We'll be okay." I tried to sound confident.**

Percy didn’t even sound confident in the recording. And this was  _ after  _ he’d lived through and survived all of this. 

**"Maybe we should search some of the other places first," Grover suggested. "Like, Elysium, for instance ..."**

**"Come on, goat boy." Annabeth grabbed his arm.**

**Grover yelped. His sneakers sprouted wings and his legs shot forward, pulling him away from Annabeth. He landed flat on his back in the grass.**

“Huh?” The word rings through the car. 

Annabeth stares at the radio, a dullness finding its way into her eyes. 

**"Grover," Annabeth chided. "Stop messing around."**

**"But I didn't—"**

“Grover?” Frank asks, his voice pitching slightly higher. “What’s going on?”

**He yelped again. His shoes were flapping like crazy now. They levitated off the ground and started dragging him away from us.**

**"Maia!" he yelled, but the magic word seemed to have no effect. "Maia, already! Nine-one-one! Help!"**

“The gifts…” Hazel whispers, her jaw going slack. “Did… he tamper with them…?”

“Where are they even taking him?” Jason asks, his gaze flicking between the radio and the street.

**I got over being stunned and made a grab for Grover's hand, but too late. He was picking up speed, skidding downhill like a bobsled.**

Piper winces. “That sounds hurtful,”

**We ran after him.**

**Annabeth shouted, "Untie the shoes!"**

**It was a smart idea, but I guess it's not so easy when your shoes are pulling you along feetfirst at full speed. Grover tried to sit up, but he couldn't get close to the laces.**

Nico was looking down, his eyebrows furrowed. “Where are they taking him?” He asks softly. 

Annabeth gives him a look that obviously confirmed his suspicions. 

**We kept after him, trying to keep him in sight as he ripped between the legs of spirits who chattered at him in annoyance.**

**I was sure Grover was going to barrel straight through the gates of Hades's palace, but his shoes veered sharply to the right and dragged him in the opposite direction.**

“What’s in the opposite direction?” Leo asks, leaning forward, his head swiveling between Nico, Hazel, and Annabeth. 

Only Hazel looks confused. The other two just stare forward silently. 

**The slope got steeper. Grover picked up speed. Annabeth and I had to sprint to keep up. The cavern walls narrowed on either side, and I realized we'd entered some kind of side tunnel. No black grass or trees now, just rock underfoot, and the dim light of the stalactites above.**

“Like his dream.” Piper observes. “Or… how I imagined it…”

**"Grover!" I yelled, my voice echoing. "Hold on to something!"**

**"What?" he yelled back.**

**He was grabbing at gravel, but there was nothing big enough to slow him down.**

**The tunnel got darker and colder. The hairs on my arms bristled. It smelled evil down here. It made me think of things I shouldn't even know about—blood spilled on an ancient stone altar, the foul breath of a murderer.**

“He’s right.” Frank agrees. “He shouldn’t know about that.”

“ _ None  _ of us should know about that.” Jason whispers, blinking a few times. 

**Then I saw what was ahead of us, and I stopped dead in my tracks.**

**The tunnel widened into a huge dark cavern, and in the middle was a chasm the size of a city block.**

“A…” Leo starts to say, and then stops. All of the breath rushed out of his lungs. “No…”

Nobody else said anything. 

**Grover was sliding straight toward the edge.**

**"Come on, Percy!" Annabeth yelled, tugging at my wrist.**

Hazel punches at her lips, shooting looks towards Nico and Annabeth. Both of their shoulders were hunched, and they weren’t looking up. 

**"But that's—"**

**"I know!" she shouted. "The place you described in your dream! But Grover's going to fall if we don't catch him." She was right, of course. Grover's predicament got me moving again.**

Reyna swallows thickly. “He’s not being dragged, where I  _ think _ -“ Her voice wavers, and she stops talking. 

**He was yelling, clawing at the ground, but the winged shoes kept dragging him toward the pit, and it didn't look like we could possibly get to him in time.**

**What saved him were his hooves.**

“Woo.” Piper deadpans. She loosely waves her hands in the air, but no enthusiasm was in her voice. 

She didn’t look upset. She looked downright murderous.

**The flying sneakers had always been a loose fit on him, and finally Grover hit a big rock and the left shoe came flying off. It sped into the darkness, down into the chasm. The right shoe kept tugging him along, but not as fast. Grover was able to slow himself down by grabbing on to the big rock and using it like an anchor.**

**He was ten feet from the edge of the pit when we caught him and hauled him back up the slope. The other winged shoe tugged itself off, circled around us angrily and kicked our heads in protest before flying off into the chasm to join its twin.**

Frank leans his head back, rubbing at his eyes. 

Jason clenched the steering wheel with a white knuckled grip. 

The only sound was Hazel’s deep breathing. 

**We all collapsed, exhausted, on the obsidian gravel. My limbs felt like lead. Even my backpack seemed heavier, as if somebody had filled it with rocks.**

It was  _ not  _ the time for making guesses on what was going to happen next. So, Piper kept it to herself. 

**Grover was scratched up pretty bad. His hands were bleeding. His eyes had gone slit-pupiled, goat style, the way they did whenever he was terrified.**

Annabeth winces, and leans her head against the window. She scratches at her forehead, even though she’s not itchy. 

**"I don't know how ..." he panted. "I didn't..."**

**"Wait," I said. "Listen."**

**I heard something—a deep whisper in the darkness.**

The car goes eerily silent, as if every member was listening to the whisper as well.

Even Percy spoke in a breathy whisper, as if talking too loud would ruin something.

**Another few seconds, and Annabeth said, "Percy, this place—"**

**"Shh." I stood.**

**The sound was getting louder, a muttering, evil voice from far, far below us. Coming from the pit.**

Nico pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“I’m so tired.” He whispers, leaning his head on top of Hazel’s.

**Grover sat up. "Wh—what's that noise?"**

**Annabeth heard it too, now. I could see it in her eyes. "Tartarus. The entrance to Tartarus." I uncapped Anaklusmos.**

“That  _ son of a bitch _ !” Hazel let’s out, throwing her arms into the air. “That is  _ so low _ !”

Piper nods in agreement, crossing her arms over her chest. 

**The bronze sword expanded, gleaming in the darkness, and the evil voice seemed to falter, just for a moment, before resuming its chant.**

**I could almost make out words now, ancient, ancient words, older even than Greek. As if ...**

**"Magic," I said.**

“Run.” Leo urges, his voice breathy. 

“I’m scared.” Frank whispers, moving closer to the smaller boy. 

**"We have to get out of here," Annabeth said.**

**Together, we dragged Grover to his hooves and started back up the tunnel. My legs wouldn't move fast enough. My backpack weighed me down. The voice got louder and angrier behind us, and we broke into a run.**

Jason slows down the car as they reach a red light, his jaw twitching as he listens to the story. He couldn’t wait until he could pass the duty off to someone else. 

**Not a moment too soon.**

**A cold blast of wind pulled at our backs, as if the entire pit were inhaling. For a terrifying moment, I lost ground, my feet slipping in the gravel. If we'd been any closer to the edge, we would've been sucked in.**

Piper grits her teeth together. Annabeth made a face at the sound. 

“Please don’t do that.” She begs. 

“Do what?” Piper asks, her tongue poking out from between the aforementioned teeth. 

**We kept struggling forward, and finally reached the top of the tunnel, where the cavern widened out into the Fields of Asphodel. The wind died. A wail of outrage echoed from deep in the tunnel. Something was not happy we'd gotten away.**

**"What was that?" Grover panted, when we'd collapsed in the relative safety of a black poplar grove. "One of Hades's pets?"**

“The only pets he has are his own children.” Nico says under his breath. 

“If I wasn’t only two years older than you, I’d adopt you.” Reyna tells him. 

**Annabeth and I looked at each other. I could tell she was nursing an idea, probably the same one she'd gotten during the taxi ride to L.A., but she was too scared to share it. That was enough to terrify me.**

Leo shudders. “Same.”

“That’s so sweet.” Annabeth coos, putting a hand to her heart. Though, there was still a sadness in her eyes. A sadness mirrored in the young boy sitting next to her. 

**I capped my sword, put the pen back in my pocket. "Let's keep going." I looked at Grover. "Can you walk?"**

**He swallowed. "Yeah, sure. I never liked those shoes, anyway."**

Piper’s shoulders sag. “Poor thing.” She whispers, gently pressing her lips together. 

**He tried to sound brave about it, but he was trembling as badly as Annabeth and I were. Whatever was in that pit was nobody's pet. It was unspeakably old and powerful. Even Echidna hadn't given me that feeling. I was almost relieved to turn my back on that tunnel and head toward the palace of Hades.**

“Note the ‘almost’.” Hazel instructs, putting her finger up. 

**Almost.**

“Good call.” Frank informs her. 

Hazel shrugs. “It was nothing.”

**The Furies circled the parapets, high in the gloom. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open.**

**Up close, I saw that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death. Some were from modern times—an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask-wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls—but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago. I wondered if I was looking at prophecies that had come true.**

They stare at the radio with their mouths open agape. 

“What the fuck?” Leo finally asks. It was pretty much anybody could ask. 

It probably would have been far worse, though, had little Percy not have said it with such an uncomfortable tone. How he said it really impacted how they viewed it. 

**Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden I'd ever seen. Multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as my fist, clumps of raw diamonds. Standing here and there like frozen party guests were Medusa's garden statues— petrified children, satyrs, and centaurs—all smiling grotesquely.**

**In the center of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark. "The garden of Persephone," Annabeth said. "Keep walking."**

“Good advice.” Nico murmurs. “She doesn’t like trespassers.”

“Yeah,” Leo laughs. “Just ask Minthe.”

“ _ That  _ story you know.” Frank exclaims, waving his hands. 

**I understood why she wanted to move on. The tart smell of those pomegranates was almost overwhelming. I had a sudden desire to eat them, but then I remembered the story of Persephone. One bite of Underworld food, and we would never be able to leave. I pulled Grover away to keep him from picking a big juicy one.**

**We walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof, far above. I guess they never had to worry about rain down here.**

“Nope…” Piper says softly. “Just stalactites falling from above at any possible moment…”

“What is with Greeks and not making roofs in their buildings?” Jason asks. 

He seemed to be genuinely asking, so all of the Greeks in the car just kept their mouths shut. 

**Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armor, some British redcoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered us, but their hollow eye sockets followed us as we walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.**

**Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at us, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.**

Frank is quiet, leaning towards Nico. “...  _ How _ often do you spend down there?”

Nico just stares forward, eyes kind of vacant. “ _ Too  _ often.”

**"You know," Grover mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen."**

“If you don’t count the fact that they’re all in the Fields of Punishment.” Hazel shrugs, rubbing her nails. 

“Well, there goes my dream job.” Leo deadpans. 

**My backpack weighed a ton now. I couldn't figure out why. I wanted to open it, check to see if I had somehow picked up a stray bowling ball, but this wasn't the time.**

Piper presses her fingers to her mouth. She had a feeling she knew what would happen next, but she didn’t want to say anything that could ruin it for the others. 

**"Well, guys," I said. "I suppose we should ... knock?"**

**A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside.**

**"I guess that means entrez-vous," Annabeth said.**

“I don’t know what that means, but I would say, run.” Jason whispers, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. 

**The room inside looked just like in my dream, except this time the throne of Hades was occupied.**

“I’m scared.” Frank tells Leo. 

“Well, yeah. No one likes to hear about the father in law.” Leo agrees. 

The older boy’s face falls. “I didn’t even think about that.”

**He was the third god I'd met, but the first who really struck me as godlike.**

**He was at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet black. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther.**

**I immediately felt like he should be giving the orders. He knew more than I did. He should be my master. Then I told myself to snap out of it.**

“Yeah!” Reyna exclaims. “Only Annabeth gives the orders around here.”

“Damn right.” The blonde girl says, snapping her fingers. 

**Hades's aura was affecting me, just as Ares's had. The Lord of the Dead resembled pictures I'd seen of Adolph Hitler, or Napoleon, or the terrorist leaders who direct suicide bombers. Hades had the same intense eyes, the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma.**

“Thank the gods I took after my mom.” Hazel whispers, furrowing her eyebrows. 

**"You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."**

“A mixture of both. Runs in the family.” Leo winks. And then he furrows his eyebrows. “Wait… what did he do to Hades?”

**Numbness crept into my joints, tempting me to lie down and just take a little nap at Hades's feet. Curl up here and sleep forever.**

**I fought the feeling and stepped forward. I knew what I had to say. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."**

“Stop reminding us of our creepy family relationships.” Piper groans, looking like the living embodiment of a certain emoji. 

**Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out. The ADHD part of me wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades's underwear?**

Frank’s face goes blank. “Oh no… now I’m curious.”

Jason wrinkles his nose. “Great. I can’t get  _ that  _ image out of my mind.”

**"Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."**

**I swallowed. This was going about as well as I'd feared.**

“Better than I thought it would.” Reyna shrugs. 

Annabeth purses her lips, and drops her head. “Honestly, same.”

**I glanced at the empty, smaller throne next to Hades's. It was shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. I wished Queen Persephone were here. I recalled something in the myths about how she could calm her husband's moods. But it was summer. Of course, Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Her visits, not the tilt of the planet, create the seasons.**

**Annabeth cleared her throat. Her finger prodded me in the back.**

“Good.” Nico whispers. “Can  _ not  _ listen to more about her right now. Every time I see her, she tells me that I’m too thin.”

“You are…” Hazel says softly. 

“Yeah, but I don’t like hearing it from her.”

**"Lord Hades," I said. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be ... bad."**

**"Really bad," Grover added helpfully.**

“They really  _ are _ best friends.” Jason murmurs. 

“Two peas in a dysfunctional pod.” Leo agrees. “Like me and Piper.”

**"Return Zeus's master bolt to me," I said. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."**

**Hades's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?"**

**I glanced back at my friends. They looked as confused as I was.**

Everyone else also looked pretty confused. Except for those that had already heard some of this story, Annabeth who had lived it, and Piper who had kind of figured it out already.

**"Um ... Uncle," I said. "You keep saying 'after what you've done.' What exactly have I done?"**

**The throne room shook with a tremor so strong, they probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, from every time period and nation in Western civilization. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits.**

“That escalated quickly.” Frank comments, leaning his elbow on Leo’s shoulder. 

“Your bony elbow is piercing my skin.” Leo deadpans, crossing his arms over his chest. 

**Hades bellowed, "Do you think I want war, godling?"**

**I wanted to say, Well, these guys don't look like peace activists. But I thought that might be a dangerous answer.**

“Trust your instincts.” Reyna instructs, nodding wisely, and giving the ‘ok’ sign. 

**"You are the Lord of the Dead," I said carefully. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"**

**"A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"**

“He makes a point.” Piper admits. “There’s got to be more people down there, than there are on earth right now. I’m sure natural deaths and regular murders take up enough time as it is.”

Jason just blinks. “Why did that make me more depressed?”

**"Well..."**

**"Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"**

**I opened my mouth to respond, but Hades was on a roll now.**

“He asks a lot of hypothetical questions.” Nico sighs. “It’s really annoying.”

“Did you clean your room?” Hazel asks in an impression of her father. “Of course you didn’t, why do I even bother asking?”

**"More security ghouls," he moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"**

**"Charon wants a pay raise," I blurted, just remembering the fact. As soon as I said it, I wished I could sew up my mouth.**

“Oh, sweetie.” Annabeth sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Not the time…”

**"Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."**

**"But you took Zeus's master bolt."**

“No offense, but even  _ I  _ can tell that he clearly didn’t.” Leo exclaims. 

“You’re really smart.” Piper tells him, crossing her arms over her chest. “You know that, right?”

Leo shifts uncomfortably. “Well… yeah… but I suck at reading comprehension and social cues.”

**"Lies!" More rumbling. Hades rose from his throne, towering to the height of a football goalpost. "Your father may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."**

**"His plan?"**

“His plan?” Frank and Jason ask at the same time that Percy does. 

**"You were the thief on the winter solstice," he said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus, You took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not sent my Fury to discover you at YancyAcademy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"**

“The bitch stole  _ that too _ !” Hazel hisses, crossing her arms over her chest tightly. 

“It’s bad that I know who you’re talking about every time you say that word.” Jason sighs, pursing his lips together. 

**"But ..." Annabeth spoke. I could tell her mind was going a million miles an hour. "Lord Hades, your helm of darkness is missing, too?"**

**"Do not play innocent with me, girl. You and the satyr have been helping this hero—coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt—to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"**

Leo raises an eyebrow. “Probably not… But with a lightning bolt and an invisibility cap,  _ I  _ could probably be won over…”

“And you wonder why we didn’t get you an infinity gauntlet.” Reyna murmurs, shaking her head at him. 

**"No!" I said. "Poseidon didn't—I didn't—"**

**"I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance," Hades snarled, "because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I searched for you myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."**

“Sounds fake… but okay…” Piper shrugs, resting her hands on her stomach. 

**"You didn't try to stop us? But—"**

**"Return my helm now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counterproposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson—your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."**

“Yeah…” Nico says sarcastically. “So glad  _ that  _ tragedy was avoided.”

Everyone snorts. Hazel just darts her eyes from side to side, her shoulders almost uncomfortably stiff. 

**The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready.**

**At that point, I probably should have been terrified. The strange thing was, I felt offended. Nothing gets me angrier than being accused of something I didn't do. I've had a lot of experience with that.**

“Way to have your priorities straight.” Jason cheers, one hand pumping the air, and the other gripping the wheel. 

**"You're as bad as Zeus," I said. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?"**

**"Of course," Hades said.**

Reyna presses her fingers to her temples. “I need to focus on something other than this conversation to avoid a headache.”

In the rearview mirror, Jason sends her a devilish smirk. 

**"And the other monsters?"**

**Hades curled his lip. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you—I wanted you brought before me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my kingdom so easily?"**

**"Easily?"**

Pretty much everyone else asks the same thing at the same time. 

“What…” Leo asks softly. “What do these people consider  _ difficult _ ?”

**"Return my property!"**

**"But I don't have your helm. I came for the master bolt."**

**"Which you already possess!" Hades shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could you threaten me!"**

“Huh?” Frank questions. 

Piper perks up, her eyes wide and bright. 

**"But I didn't!"**

**"Open your pack, then."**

“Oh, fuck.” Reyna whispers under her breath. 

“What is happening?” Jason asks, staring at the ramp for the nearest exit. 

**A horrible feeling struck me. The weight in my backpack, like a bowling ball. It couldn't be....**

**I slung it off my shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.**

“Yes!” Piper yelps, raising her hands. “Yes!”

“It doesn’t seem all that good.” Hazel tells her, eyebrows raised. 

**"Percy," Annabeth said. "How—"**

**"I—I don't know. I don't understand."**

“I don’t either.” Leo murmurs, moving closer to Frank’s side to avoid Piper bumping into him with her victory dance. 

**"You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool. And now ... my helm. Where is it?"**

**I was speechless. I had no helm. I had no idea how the master bolt had gotten into my backpack. I wanted to think Hades was pulling some kind of trick. Hades was the bad guy. But suddenly the world turned sideways. I realized I'd been played with. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades had been set at each other's throats by someone else. The master bolt had been in the backpack, and I'd gotten the backpack from ...**

“Oh gods.” Frank whispers, his face going ashen. “No…”

Hazel bites her lip. “Doesn’t feel good, does it?” Frank glares ather, but there was an air of amusement between them. 

“I’m still confused.” Leo murmurs. 

**"Lord Hades, wait," I said. "This is all a mistake."**

**"A mistake?" Hades roared.**

“Again with the rhetorical questions.” Nico rolls his eyes. “Stop asking them if you don’t want answers.”

**The skeletons aimed their weapons. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and the three Furies swooped down to perch on the back of their master's throne. The one with Mrs. Dodds's face grinned at me eagerly and flicked her whip.**

**"There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know why you have come—I know the real reason you brought the bolt. You came to bargain for her."**

Reyna looks up, her mouth dropping open. “Wait… please… I…”

“Oh my, gosh. Reyna’s gone speechless.” Annabeth whispers in amazement. 

“Shut up, Chase.”

**Hades loosed a ball of gold fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps in front of me, and there was my mother, frozen in a shower of gold, just as she was at the moment when the Minotaur began to squeeze her to death.**

**I couldn't speak. I reached out to touch her, but the light was as hot as a bonfire.**

“Why do I feel like he’s speaking from experience…” Jason whispers. 

“Now you’re just reusing lines.” Hazel shakes her head at him, crossing her arms over her chest. 

**"Yes," Hades said with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Return my helm, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."**

**I thought about the pearls in my pocket. Maybe they could get me out of this. If I could just get my mom free ...**

“Yes!” Reyna urges, nodding her head so violently it could have realistically popped off at any moment. 

**"Ah, the pearls," Hades said, and my blood froze. "Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."**

“That was creepy.” Leo comments. 

“Real Snape type stuff.” Frank agrees. 

**My hand moved against my will and brought out the pearls.**

**"Only three," Hades said. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And which of your friends will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."**

“Plot device, much.” Nico rolls his eyes. 

**I looked at Annabeth and Grover. Their faces were grim.**

**"We were tricked," I told them. "Set up."**

“By who?!” Leo cries. “I have no idea what's happening.”

Reyna’s cheeks color. “Me neither.”

“I’m so intrigued, but I have no idea.” Jason whispers. 

**"Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. "And the voice in the pit—"**

**"I don't know yet," I said. "But I intend to ask."**

**"Decide, boy!" Hades yelled.**

“Stop ruining moments!” Hazel instructs. “They’re having real conversations!”

**"Percy." Grover put his hand on my shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt,"**

**"I know that."**

**"Leave me here," he said. "Use the third pearl on your mom."**

“No!” Piper yells, at the same time that Percy says,

**"No!"**

“I would never forgive anyone for leaving Grover.” Piper whispers. And then she looks straight ahead and stresses the word, “ _ Anyone _ .”

**"I'm a satyr," Grover said. "We don't have souls like humans do. He can torture me until I die, but he won't get me forever. I'll just be reincarnated as a flower or something. It's the best way."**

**"No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife. "You two go on. Grover, you have to protect Percy. You have to get your searcher's license and start your quest for Pan. Get his mom out of here. I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting."**

“What the fuck?” Reyna asks. 

“You guys are supposed to be children.” Frank whispers, bringing his thumb to his lips. 

**"No way," Grover said. "I'm staying behind."**

**"Think again, goat boy," Annabeth said.**

“Neither of you are staying!” Leo yelps, jumping in his seat. “I hope…”

**"Stop it, both of you!" I felt like my heart was being ripped in two. They had both been with me through so much. I remembered Grover dive-bombing Medusa in the statue garden, and Annabeth saving us from Cerberus; we'd survived Hephaestus's Waterland ride, the St. Louis Arch, the Lotus Casino. I had spent thousands of miles worried that I'd be betrayed by a friend, but these friends would never do that. They had done nothing but save me, over and over, and now they wanted to sacrifice their lives for my mom.**

Annabeth turns away, blinking profusely. “Dork.” She says in a hoarse voice before swallowing thickly. 

**"I know what to do," I said. "Take these."**

**I handed them each a pearl.**

“What’s happening?” Jason asks, pulling into the parking lot of a shopping center. 

**Annabeth said, "But, Percy ..."**

**I turned and faced my mother. I desperately wanted to sacrifice myself and use the last pearl on her, but I knew what she would say. She would never allow it. I had to get the bolt back to Olympus and tell Zeus the truth. I had to stop the war. She would never forgive me if I saved her instead. I thought about the prophecy made at Half-Blood Hill, what seemed like a million years ago. You will fail to save what matters most in the end.**

“No!” Reyna gasps, eyes wide. “Don’t do what I think you’re gonna do!”

“He can’t hear you…” Frank murmurs. 

“Shut up! I’m in my feels!”

**"I'm sorry," I told her. "I'll be back. I'll find a way."**

**The smug look on Hades's face faded. He said, "Godling ... ?"**

“Hah!” Nico barks, before pursing his lips together. “Excuse me. I just enjoy seeing him not always succeed.”

“Fair.” Piper responds. 

**"I'll find your helm, Uncle," I told him. "I'll return it. Remember about Charon's pay raise."**

**"Do not defy me—"**

**"And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls."**

“Wow, I forgot about that until this moment.” Leo whispers, blinking as if he was coming out of a trance. “A lot has happened since that.”

**"Percy Jackson, you will not—"**

**I shouted, "Now, guys!"**

**We smashed the pearls at our feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened.**

“Oh my, gosh.” Frank whispers. “This is so stressful. I am so stressed.” 

“I can tell.” Reyna groans. “Please put your arm down…”

**Hades yelled, "Destroy them!"**

**The army of skeletons rushed forward, swords out, guns clicking to full automatic. The Furies lunged, their whips bursting into flame.**

**Just as the skeletons opened fire, the pearl fragments at my feet exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind. I was encased in a milky white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground.**

“Um…” Piper says softly. “That’s… nice I guess…”

“My thoughts exactly.” Hazel whispers, her eyes wide. 

**Annabeth and Grover were right behind me. Spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the pearl bubbles as we floated up. Hades yelled with such rage, the entire fortress shook and I knew it was not going to be a peaceful night in L.A.**

**"Look up.'" Grover yelled. "We're going to crash!"**

At that moment, Jason opened his door. A gust of wind greets the car as they wait, breathlessly, for what was going to happen next. 

**Sure enough, we were racing right toward the stalactites, which I figured would pop our bubbles and skewer us.**

**"How do you control these things?" Annabeth shouted.**

“You don’t.” Nico murmurs, tapping his temple thoughtfully. 

Jason steps out of the car, closing his door behind him. 

**"I don't think you do!" I shouted back.**

**We screamed as the bubbles slammed into the ceiling and ... Darkness.**

A soft tapping comes to Reyna’s window, and she steps out of the car as well. Though, begrudgingly.

**Were we dead?**

“Probably not…” Leo says softly. 

**No, I could still feel the racing sensation. We were going up, right through solid rock as easily as an air bubble in water. That was the power of the pearls, I realized—What belongs to the sea will always return to the sea.**

Speaking of returning, the doors opened once more. However, the people that went back to the seats were not the same that left them. 

**For a few moments, I couldn't see anything outside the smooth walls of my sphere, then my pearl broke through on the ocean floor. The two other milky spheres, Annabeth and Grover, kept pace with me as we soared upward through the water. And—ker-blam!**

“Interesting use of onomatopoeia.” Jason remarks as he sits beside Frank. 

“Why can’t you be a normal person, and say sound effects?” Reyna groans, pushing her seat upwards so that she was closer to the pedals. 

**We exploded on the surface, in the middle of the Santa MonicaBay, knocking a surfer off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"**

“Poor guy.” Frank sighs.

“Are we not gonna comment on the seat switch?” Annabeth asks. 

“We can only react to one thing at a time.” Piper informs her friend, gently shaking her head. 

**I grabbed Grover and hauled him over to a life buoy. I caught Annabeth and dragged her over too. A curious shark was circling us, a great white about eleven feet long.**

**I said, "Beat it."**

**The shark turned and raced away.**

“Interesting…” Hazel says slowly, becoming aware of the extra space between her and the new driver. “It’s weird sitting next to another girl.”

**The surfer screamed something about bad mushrooms and paddled away from us as fast as he could.**

“I don’t get it…” Jason says slowly. 

At the same time, Piper puts a hand to her mouth to hide her snort.

**Somehow, I knew what time it was: early morning, June 21, the day of the summer solstice.**

**In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, plumes of smoke rising from neighborhoods all over the city. There had been an earthquake, all right, and it was Hades's fault. He was probably sending an army of the dead after me right now.**

“I heard about that earthquake…” Leo whispers. “It was a current event in school.”

Nico shakes his head. “He’s such a jerk.”

**But at the moment, the Underworld wasn't my biggest problem.**

**I had to get to shore. I had to get Zeus's thunderbolt back to Olympus. Most of all, I had to have a serious conversation with the god who'd tricked me.**

“Who!?” Reyna yells, starting the car, and driving out of the parking lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here we go. You may not care, but we have officially reached the total amount of pages that are in the original book (according to Google 😭)
> 
> Anyways, see y’all next time ✌️

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts??? 👉👈


End file.
